Traces Through Time:Pieces
by quiet.recluse
Summary: Part One-an AU of Doom Saga.A new girl arrives,with a mask of cheerfulness.However, she is not who she acts like. What is she hiding behind her merry smile? How does her presence effect destiny? Do not YGO. COMPLETE!
1. Prologue

Traces Through Time:Part One

First part-there may be a second if I have enough time. Sort of AU, since this is not completely how the Yu-Gi-Oh manga or show goes. I have not seen all the episodes, so please bear with me.

Warning: For future reference, there will be violence, deaths.

* * *

Prologue

Atlantis had fallen-had been gone for many years. Not one person was known to survive; no one knew enough to pass on a legend hidden and faded through the passing of time in Atlantis itself, unknown to most of the populace even when it began. The legend of the connection between Atlantis, supposed paradise on earth, and their other dimension partner, which was merely named the Heavens, for that, was what it was like. This legend would later intertwine with Pharaoh Atem's life.

A race of angel-like people made of apprentices, masters, gods and goddesses as ranking. Apprentices trained since they were young to use their powers, for boys it was to become a master and maybe one day a part of the council of gods. For girls, they were trained to become goddesses that work in different departments of managing their world. They had a high level of technology, much higher then any standard on earth, and even more advanced the Atlantis.

They were a discreet race, who sometimes helped the Atlanteans secretly without being detected. The few human they revealed themselves to, were good people, who they decided specifically had a good heart and would remain that way. The royal family of Atlantis had a vague knowledge of the angel race, but since it was requested not to be written down, even that small bit of knowledge they had was lost in time. The people of the Heavens knew much about the people of Atlantis though-their technology relied on the amount of life on Atlantis, thus the secret relationship between the two dimensions.

Sadly though, when Atlantis was washed away in the tsunami wave, the gods had built their life styles too reliantly on their technology. Due to the loss of Atlantis, the whole mainframe shut down, or exploded. Not even any nature survived to power their mainframe, Ictracyl, even slightly. Each being in the Heavens had their life energy connected to the mainframe. As the mainframe was wrecked and corrupted, so did them. Their usually controlled emotions were given free reign, and their despair, sadness and horror overtook them. Most died, and their spirit set free to roam inside a sort of dream-like reality built on memories, where they could live as before without any danger. The ones that lived through the first wave of deaths from their souls being infected or crushed grew twisted.

They became more children for the Orichalcos, and joined the original monsters.

However, one goddess, a goddess First Class named Belldandy, had not been directly at the Heavens, as she lived with her human lover in a modernised Atlantis. She had survived the tidal wave due to her powers, but in the chaos, her lover had been dashed against a cliff face, and broken his back, killing hi instantly. While she may be a high graduate goddess, her people did not have the power to resurrect the dead. She wept for him, then sensed something wrong in the Heavens, and went up to check. The sight she was greeted with was destruction, and she found her two sisters just before their spirit faded into the dimension of memories to live eternally.

Distraught and nearly senseless with grief, she fled to earth, and coincidently ended up landing the Nile River, in an early Egypt where Pharaoh Narmer was newly ruling the land. In the shallower parts of the Nile, she lay on the shores and let herself be consumed by grief, killing her by the next day. Before she died, she had taken her staff, the only remnant she had of Heaven, and changed it from ear jewellery to a bracelet of dull coloured gold inlaid with a few blue gems nearly as pale as her sky coloured eyes. The design of it was intricate, a near copy of the carvings on the top of her staff. She cast a spell over it, and then set it adrift on the Nile, before death took her, and freed her spirit to join her lover Keiichi.

The bracelet was to carry a destiny with it. Only one that was related to Keiichi would inherit her powers, and may lay true claim to the bracelet. She had done that so if her body was found, none would be able to get her powers from her staff, or try and use her blood in spells, as her blood had many properties. What she did not count on was that the gods and goddesses of Egypt would take notice of her, and help her, since she was a pure, powerful soul. They made her body a part of the Nile itself, thus giving her new power-to control water, and freeze it too. Since she was dead, that power was stored with the rest of her own powers, to await the destined person.

For you see, Belldandy had not known that in fact one relative of Keiichi survived, by being put in a wicker basket lined with blankets while still a baby. That basket was rushed through vast bodies of water to end up in Ancient China, by the coast. A woman with a kind spirit would find the baby girl and take her in as her own daughter. The girl would grow up with Belldandy's powers inside her, but still sealed until the right time was appropriate to unlock them, for a descendant that would truly need it. The right descendant would not be born until many millennia later, in the late twentieth century. By then, her family had been distinguished as Chinese, but half of them born in Indonesia. As a toddler, this descendant would immigrate to Australia with her parents, and experience horrors which no child should have to face.

But this whole story should be told with more detail. How does one such as me know this tale when no one else does? It's simple really.  
I am her.

* * *

The first chapter is a bit confusing, and probably a mess, but it relates to the story later. this will probably be the only chapter from someone's direct point of view.There will be another chapter up, but please leave a review!


	2. Chapter 1

Hello! Well, here's the second chapter, or the first after prologue.  
Warning to all, the beginning is rather dull, but the actions later on will be a bit violent and bloody. Dark chapter.

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Chapter One

"Elisa, we're going to Uncle Guntur and Aunt Kamboja's House now!" shouted a woman from downstairs.

Elisa heard her mother, and went downstairs to see her family goodbye. She waved to her mother, father and her little eight year old brother, Harjono, goodbye as they drove out to visit a family friend. Since her parents, grandparents and she herself, until she was four, was raised in Indonesia, they had kept some old mannerisms with them, such as calling your parents' family friends aunt or uncle. More of her family was Chinese rather then Indonesian though, so she wasn't too sure by what courtesies she was meant to abide by.

She had decided not to go with them, as their visits there were usually late night, and she would always end up as her brother's accidental napping pillow. Besides, she had high school homework, being in year seven.

Retrieving her school homework books from her bag, she completed her homework early, playing some pop music from her computer as the silence of an empty house slightly scared her -her grandma had stayed at one of her friend's house, and so she was at the house alone, insisting she had to stay home and assuring her parents she would be okay. Now she wished she hadn't.

Something was niggling at her. She felt restless-the type you feel when you know something bad was going to happen. After homework, she checked up for any recent news.

'That's interesting-a major car accident happened just an hour ago nearby-no survivors,' she thought to herself sadly. No pictures were disclosed. Shutting down the computer, she went around the house and eventually into her mother's wardrobe, making sure to flip on as many light switches as she could along the way. Staying at home alone when almost all the lights were out at ten at night was too freaky for her. Inside her mother's wardrobe, she pulled out a case of old jewellery, the small load of jewellery traditionally given from family to daughter getting married in Indonesia. There was a small assortment of them, some rare, some family heirlooms, some really pretty, and the not-so-pretty ones. She even looked through her baby ones.

It was a reminder of a time before she had to work more in high school, before she knew the word, exam, existed. Infant school days were sweet, she reflected, and then came back to reality. She searched through the lot until she found one particular piece of jewellery. Brushing her layered, black hair out of her eyes, she scrutinized it.

It was a bracelet, but unusual for an Indonesian crafted one. She doubted it came from there in the first place. The bracelet was made out of a dull kind off gold, inset with three clear sky blue gems. The design carved on the bracelet was of intricate swirls and curving lines. Elisa briefly wondered where this piece of jewellery originated from. Even her mum didn't know, it had been bought by her mum (Elisa's grandma) along with another piece of jewellery that had apparently come from Egypt. Elisa carefully put down the bracelet and gently picked up the other piece of jewellery that had been sold to her grandma with it.

This one was a necklace made of small bright gold links for a chain. The pendant attached to the middle was a pearl carved into the shape of a detailed wolf the size of a large glue stick lid. The details were beautiful, and it was a wonder that this was made by hand, as it supposedly came from Ancient Egypt.

On impulse she put both the necklace and the bracelet on-they fit snugly, the bracelet around her wrist like it was made just for her, and the necklace not choking her, the pendant resting a little below the base of her throat, under her shirt. For a moment, both throbbed and pulsed, then stilled.

Satisfied, Elisa smiled. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and she jumped nearly a foot in the air in surprise. Hastily clearing all the other jewellery away, she peeked out the window and was surprised to see a police officer standing outside her home. Quickly, she went to the gates of her house.

"Are you Miss Elisa Kuria?" the police officer asked.

"I am. Why?" she replied awkwardly-authority made her nervous. Her nerves tightened as she observed his grave, sad expression.

"I'm sorry to say, but your parents and little brother were killed in a car accident not too far from here one and a half hours ago…"

She blinked, surprised. No, that couldn't be true. Her parents had gone to visit family friends; they just hadn't come home yet. Unless it was that car accident written about on the internet…

"Oh my god. No way, that can't be true. They're not dead! They went to visit someone," she pleaded as her breath seemed to get stuck in her throat, to the point she nearly wasn't breathing.

"I'm sorry Elisa, I know this is hard, but they are dead," the officer said, not unkindly.

Elisa was not one to burst into tears straight after bad news. She rarely cried at all, despite being a bit overweight caused a little bit of teasing at her Chinese school. So she demanded instead, "I want to see them. Please let me see them, since you know where they are! There must be some…some misunderstanding or something!"

She begged and wouldn't give in until the officer took her into his car and drove her to the scene of the accident. Unknown to her, her bracelet let out a pulse just before getting in the car, and her necklace seemed to glint a little unnaturally before settling.

The scene was horrible. There were two badly smashed cars, glass littered the ground everywhere, and there, near the debris, were two adults covering three lumps with plastic. She tore away from the police officers and before anyone could stop her, she had ripped the plastic off the faces of the three bodies.

What would have been the faces of her mother and brother were cut and burnt; her brother's mangled down one side. Blood covered them and on the floor. Elisa felt her stomach twist and turn in horror from the smell of blood, but strangely, something told her this wasn't her family. Maybe it was just her, but just for a moment she had glimpsed different features on their faces before they faded into her families. She said exactly so to the three adults now trying to haul the struggling child away from the bodies.

"Those aren't my family! I can feel it!" was heard amongst her babbling, as everyone working on the scene of the crime looked at her sympathetically. She didn't want their sympathy. Those weren't the bodies of her family, just some look alike! Her bracelet was pulsing warmly on her arm as unknowingly, it had given her the vision beforehand.

"You're just going into denial now girl, it'll be okay," said one person, and she had had it.

"Those aren't my family members!!" she screamed, and clawed herself away from the rapidly growing amount of people trying to push her into an ambulance. She gritted her teeth-why wouldn't anyone believe her?! She needed to prove it wasn't them, if not to the police, then to make certain for herself.

"She's going into a fit!" one medic cried at Elisa's ranting, but she violently punched, kicked and clawed at the restraining arms. She heard sedatives from someone, and her brain went nuts. She didn't want to go to sleep!

She didn't really know what happened next. One minute she was being restrained while a medic was approaching with a syringe, the next second several water pipes from different houses within a three kilometre radius exploded and all the water seemed to create a large wave aiming for where she was. It crashed down like a tidal wave, blinding everyone. She however, felt strangely soothed by the water around her, like showering after a nightmare. Thinking more clearly then she had ever done in a crisis; she fled the scene before anyone could stand up again, and ran down the streets. Instinct led her back to her house. A shower of blue sparks dissipated in the air as the pulse her bracelet had emitted earlier faded from around the house. Wildly storming through the front door, she shut it behind her and locked it from the doorknob. Then she turned around, and realised she was in pitch black.

Anxiety gripped her, and as quietly as she could, she walked along the walls, trying to guide herself to a light switch. She flipped the closest, but it didn't work. Panic began to worm its way into her mind, her stomach in knots.

A sudden flicker of light came from a candle set on a chair; she whirled around to the source of the light, frightened almost beyond reason. Someone was in the house, and close to her, to be able to light that candle.

More candles lit up all over the house, both upstairs and downstairs, and the dim flames cast long eerie shadows along the wall, moving to a non existent wind. She gasped and pressed herself against a wall, breathing heavily, and hands sweating. It was then she saw what was on the opposite wall-writing.

_Alone now, Elisa. Where do you think your family members are now?_

It was written in a sticky, flaky red substance. Right below those words, a lifeless form lay, making her breath hitch. Against her will, she moved forward shakily, and turned the form over. A soundless scream came from her open mouth and she shrank to the foot of the stairs, silent screams still erupting from her and choking her. The red substance was blood. And it had come from the body of her grandma, whose eyes had been pulled out. Sickened, Elisa nearly retched on the floor, but held her hand over her mouth. She fled upstairs and into the first room she encountered-her parents'.

She hid behind a curtain; hiding from the flickering shadows of the lit candles like a two year old, with a difference-the gore made her terror, not just the shadows. The sound of soft footsteps reached her, and she lay still as death, terrified.

The curtain was pulled back, and she was flung onto the floor. A man towered over her. Shadows seemed to be drawn to him, and this old, warrior type man, draped with a purple hooded cape, had such darkness within the one eye visible, darkness she used to believe was beyond the capabilities of man. He sneered down at the twelve year old girl, as she cowered back from his gaze. He turned away for a moment, and she used it to dash back to a large window. Heck, she would jump out that window if she had to, to stay away from the horrors in front of her!

However, when she reached the window, she did not see the neighbour's houses. All she saw was some sort of purplish-black cloud hovering everywhere. She could not see anything but it, and she hesitated, turning back to the cold man.

He was waiting for her near her parent's walk in wardrobe. She stepped forward a few steps before her legs froze from tension.

"Child, give me your powers. Maybe then I will still spare your pathetic mortal life," a low snarl came from him. She backed up a step at the voice.

"Powers? What are you talking about?" she quavered. He snarled in response, and she took another half step back.

"Wench, your powers will be mine, or you will not meddle with my plans!"

Elisa swallowed her fear enough to quaver out, "You killed my grandma, didn't you? And you framed that car accident. Where is my parents and brother? Who are you? Lunatic!" Tears streamed from her dark brown eyes.

A dark chuckle resounded around the room. "Foolish girl, they will pay for your insolence." Three bodies were dragged across the floor by jackal like creatures, and thrown at her feet. The state of her grandma was nothing compared to her parents and brother. He began his own mental torture on her after torturing the remaining life out of them while she was chained to a wall. The things she went through would haunt her memories like ghosts.

Screams were all that echoed from the enclosed bubble of darkness around the house, and dark laughter. Eventually her mind shut down and drifted in endless black away from the pain of her scarred, bleeding body and anguished, senselessly terrified mind. He stopped and addressed a few parting words to the broken spirit of Elisa Kuria.

"Remember me, girl. I am Akunadin."

* * *

Yes, it is dark towards the end. Give me ideas for what could happen in this! I will not repeat all the battles in the Doom saga, for example, Kaiba's and Allister's, and bits and pieces will be left out or replaced with my own ideas.

Please review!


	3. Chapter 2

Hey everyone! I'd like to thank **The Duellist's Heiress** for sending reviews!  
This chapter is not one of the most interesting, but it's the beginning, so please don't be too put off by it.

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Chapter Two

The horror Elisa faced never faded from her memories and her mind was reduced to one objective at that time-flee, vanish, drop from existence and avoid her tormentor for the rest of her life. Police were bewildered when the next morning; they went to her house only to keep hitting against an invisible barrier. Scientists tested it, experimented with it, and quarreled over reasons why they couldn't enter. The never thought it could be real magic. They never solved it. That in itself to a long time to discuss over, months, in which, if Elisa really was still living there, she would have attempted to go outside for food. No one ever came out, the curtains were all drawn, and the house grew dustier with disuse. Everyone gave up on the idea that it was her hiding spot, expecting she had fled to a different house or even city. All searching turned up nothing. It was like Elisa Kuria had never existed, or simply died, which is what police finally concluded to. Her case was closed. But even if they had seen Elisa again, she would be so changed, beyond the point of recognition.

Three years later…

_He drifted through a street aimlessly, not knowing where he was going. The night above him was black, and there was a heavy stillness around him. The houses that lined the street left and right were old, dusty __and__ looked as if no one had lived in them for quite a while. Almost every house he passed was for sale. It felt like a ghost town._

"_Where am I?" Yugi murmured. "Hello? Pharaoh? Guys? Anyone?"_

_No reply. He shivered, and kept walking. A house rather larger then the others he had passed caught his attention. It too was unused looking, but it seemed newer then the rest, and the gates for it were wide open. He started across the driveway and up to the front door, which were covered in cobwebs. He knocked, but no one answered. He gave a slight push to the door, and it surprisingly swung open. However, nothing greeted him but darkness so thick he couldn't see three centimeters into it._

_Suddenly, piercing screams rendered through the house, echoing right into him at the front. The scream was one torn by anguish and pain, so immense Yugi jumped away, clapping his hands over his ears, but still the scream sent chills up his spine, and he backed away, slipping slightly at a lowered edge. His arms flailed as he fell backwards, his mouth open in a silent gasp-_

"Argh!" Yugi fell off the bed, arms thrashing, and landed on his backside. He winced and sat up from the floor, breathing heavily. Gingerly rubbing his back, he murmured to himself, "That strange dream again." The Millennium Puzzle flashed slightly, and the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle was standing beside the young, innocent eyed teenager in his spectral form.

"Good morning Yugi. Though, it look's like you've had a rough night," the pharaoh's spirit, currently called by Pharaoh, said.

"Urgh, you can say that again. That nightmare's been haunting me for weeks," Yugi grumbled. A hint of suspicion was in his mind though, one the spirit voiced.

"Do you think it is more then a nightmare? A vision of some sort, perhaps?"

"Maybe," Yugi replied. He didn't want a headache puzzling over a dream this early in the day, so he moved on to another subject, one that would make the Pharaoh more at ease and puzzle less about what was probably a dream.

"Well, we're going to the museum today, Pharaoh, so soon you'll have your memories back!" Yugi chirped, grinning joyfully. He was close to keeping his promise to the Pharaoh to recover his memories, with help from his friends. He had already told the Pharaoh last night that he was going to skip school, despite wanting to go and talk to the new student that had just come yesterday, and go to the museum instead, assuring the Pharaoh that one day of school didn't matter compared to this. Admittedly he had played on his weakness of wanting his memories back soon to persuade him it was okay.

"I heard that, Yugi," Pharaoh said in amusement, as Yugi began to stammer and then grin sheepishly. He looked at the clock to distract himself. "It's time to go Pharaoh," he says, and putting on his Millennium Puzzle, he waved goodbye to his grandpa and walked outside, in the direction of the museum. The Puzzle glowed, and the Pharaoh took his place, walking purposefully to where his memories lay.

"Yugi! Wait Up!" voices yelled. The Pharaoh, very often mistaken for Yugi by his friends by accident, turned around from his place near the museum.

"Why didn't you tell us you were going to the museum, buddy?" Joey demanded. The Pharaoh stuttered a little, not really knowing how to reply.

"Yeah, Yugi. We're your friends, remember? I've been saying that for ages, it must have gotten through by now," Tea admonished gently. Tristan gave a nod, smile and thumbs up. The Pharaoh smiled at his friends' loyalty in him, and nodded. "Let's go."

Inside the museum, the place was almost deserted as the group made their way to the stone tablet of the Pharaoh. Along the corridor to it though, a person in a blur of orange charged right into Joey.

"I'm so sorry!" the person cried, helping to pull Joey back on his feet. The speaker turned out to be the short, slender new girl herself who arrived at Domino High the day before, Efrona Kwan. Her empathic aquamarine eyes looked rushed right then,and a little scared. Judging from the character of her seen the day before-bright, understanding and happy-scared wasn't one of her normal traits. Concerned, the group questioned her as to why she was so hurried.

She laughed, looking awkwardly at the ground. "Well, I, had some business near the museum, and after, since I was really late for school already as it is, I just thought to take a stroll in the museum. Somehow though, I get the feeling I shouldn't be here-or I might interrupt something," she explained, eyes shining with that strange happiness she exuded.

They blinked-they had come to the museum to recover the Pharaoh's memories, and certainly an almost complete stranger would have made the process longer and a bit more complicated, by having to distract her if she was in the Egyptian exhibit. Scary sixth sense.

"Eh hehe," Joey chuckled nervously, then suddenly asked, "Wait, you're meant to be in school. What are you doing out?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I should ask the same thing of you." Her eyes stared curiously at them at the sudden clearing of throats and awkward glances to the museum. She seemed to get the message that they wanted to go somewhere.

"Bye everyone," she said, a slight smile flickering across her face. They called out a farewell as she glided away and around a corner.

"She's right more open then you are sometimes, Yugi," Tristan commented, grinning. "And she's cute too."

"Ha! You wouldn't stand a chance, Tristan. Joey Wheeler has a reason why he's got all the women!" Joey taunted, and the two ended up fighting over it. Tea sighed and shook her head. "Those two-they never change." The Pharaoh merely chuckled at their childish antics. He was grateful for his friends' support.

* * *

The chamber was dim, and smelled of the ocean. Candles were lit around the room, brightening the darkness just a little. At the far end of the room, a cloaked man kneels before an alter, chanting.

"Great beast of the Orichalcos, I call upon you, absorb the Pharaoh's force, and liberate the fury of ten thousand years!"

Hair-raising laughter echoed around the cavernous chamber.

* * *

They continued to the exhibit. "Wow! Check it out!" Tristan exclaimed, noticing the Tablet of the Pharaoh. All of them ogled at the tablet, muttering comments like "Unbelievable" and "He looks just like you."

The Pharaoh looked at his Egyptian God Cards. They had gone through a lot in Battle City, and come victorious, as well as gaining the keys to unlocking his memory-the cards themselves. 'It's time' Yugi chimed through their mental link. The Pharaoh nodded and held up the god cards to face the tablet.

The Eye of Horus in the stone tablet flashed with golden light, and the god cards began to glow with an intense light.

Suddenly, it was like the magical energy crackled. Ice began to spread across the stone tablet, covering it completely, and the energy of the god cards turned dark. The Pharaoh cried out in pain and clutched his arm.

"What's going on?" Tea cried.

"It's as if the power of the god cards is being drained!" Pharaoh gasped.

"Drop the cards man!" Tristan yelled.

"I-can't…" he managed out. Just as he said it, the cards stopped crackling, and rubbing his arm, he managed to make it move again.

A scream suddenly broke through the air, and they sprinted outside to see what it was, and then gaped at the scene.

Duel monsters were infesting the city everywhere, perched on buildings, stampeding through the streets and chasing terrified people. The people cowered and ran to buildings for shelter, screaming. Someone sprinted up to them, black hair with sapphire blue side fringe in a ponytail, swinging.

"What happened?" Tea asked a breathless Efrona.

"I don't know-you tell me! It was peaceful before, and then all of a sudden these monsters pop up everywhere!" Efrona gasped. She stood with them, staring with horror at the scene

"Someone's duel disk must have gone haywire!" Tristan commented.

"It would take more then one busted duel disk to project all these holograms all over the city," Tea reasoned. Joey stopped his staring at the chaos and added, "I think we should see da source of it all-Kaiba."

They ran towards Kaiba Corp, Efrona tagging along, and met Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor on the way.

"Rex, Weevil!" Joey yelled, not knowing whether to be angry at them for cheating and being stuck up in Duellist Kingdom, or worried because of their dazed expressions. The latter won, and he asked, "Are you alright?"

"The Age of Destruction is here," Weevil squeaked out in apparently dazed delight.

"Your souls will be offered to the Great Beast," Rex added, apparently in the same dazed delight as Weevil. The gang stared at them, speechless.

"They must be in shock or something," Tea suggested.

"Major shock," Efrona emphasised.

Joey yelled at them to hurry up, and with a last glance at the dazed pair, they kept running to Kaiba Corp.

"What is going on with the Duel Disk Systems? Are the duel disks the cause of this? Does Mr. Kaiba have anything to say about this?" reporters shouted to a flustered Roland at the Kaiba Corp entrance. He waved his hands for silence and spoke above the noise.

"Mr Kaiba is away on business, and will hold a press conference from there. Please leave now."

The reporters clambered for more, shouting a din, but security guards suddenly appeared and began to push the reporters away.

"We'll never get past those TV reporters-we might as well go back and just wait for this press conference, it's bound to be aired on television sometime," Efrona said.

Later on, at the game shop, everyone lounged, waiting for the press release to air on TV. The Pharaoh was still out, to make sure there was no immediate danger with all the monsters rampaging outside. The news reporter announced that a winged dragon had been spotted perched on the Taj Mahal.

"It's all over the world, not just here?!" Efrona cried incredulously. "So strange." She noticed the gang's exchange of meaningful glances. "What's up with everyone?"

Before they could try to come up with an excuse, the news report cut off to a press conference held by Seto Kaiba. Standing in his purple foot length trench coat, his presence demanded quiet, something Efrona mentally commented on.

"Kaiba Corp has done a thorough scan of its system, and can conclude that the monster sightings have nothing to do with us. Our system is working perfectly," he finished shortly, and the news switched off.

"He's covering-he's got to be covering," Tristan said. "Who else has the technology to project holograms like that?"

"Unless…" Tea glanced at the Pharaoh. "Unless they aren't holograms," she finished.

"No way, they can't," Efrona disagreed.

"I agree with Tea. The forces I felt in the museum today might have something to do with this siege of monsters, which would mean the monsters are real. I wonder, did Rex and Weevil know this?" he murmured the last part as more a rhetorical question.

A crash suddenly echoed through the room, and grandpa Motou's cry of pain. They ran out, and Pharaoh reliquished his control to Yugi, to take care of his grandpa.

"Grandpa! What happened?" Yugi cried, as he helped his grandpa up from the floor. Broken glass from the shop door littered the floor.

"Yugi-they took them," grandpa groaned.

"Took what grandpa?" Yugi asked.

"Your prized cards," he replied, managing to steady himself now.

"What? Don't worry Yug, I'll find them!" Joey yelled, and raced outside.

"Joey!" they cried, and raced out after him into the night. They stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of the three holograms of the Egyptian god crads in the distance.

"Who the hell would steal the Egyptian God cards then summon them right in the middle of the city for everyone to see?!" Joey exclaimed, scratching his head. Three headlights flashed into their faces, blinding them momentarily, as three figures driving motorcycles drive up.

"Missing something?" the one in the middle, with straw blonde hair, taunted.

"Where are the Egyptian God cards?" Yugi demanded bravely. A little behind them all, Efrona observed the scene quietly, unoticed. Her eyes are momentarily harsh.

"You'll have to get through us if you want your cards back," the three bikers laughed.

"You don't scare me, punks," Joey raged.

"Those cards don't belong to you," Yugi put in.

"The god cards serve a new master now-Pharaoh," the blonde biker sneered. Yugi drew back in shock. How did they know about the Pharaoh?

"If you want your cards back, then you'll have to follow us," they drawled, and rode away towards a building under construction. The gang looked at each other, but had no choice but to follow the trio to the site. Yugi changed into the Pharaoh, and they followed.

At the constuction site, a brown haired, bearded man with a glass monocle waited for them.

"Well well, pharaoh. It seems like both of us have something that the other wants. You want the god cards back, and I want your soul," the man cackled darkly. Joey muttered, "schizo," faintly under his breath, and Efrona nodded. He was definitely creepy.

"Those god cards hold a power more dangerous then you can understand! Give them back, before someone gets hurt," Pharaoh demanded. He remembered Odion's attempt to use the Winged Dragon of Ra in the Battle City Finals, and really didn't want another one to suffer the consequences, even if he happened to be a madman.

"I'm well aware of their power Pharaoh, and if you want them back, then you'll have to duel me for it!" The man chuckled, and activated his duel disk. It was not a customary one-it had more card slots, was slightly longer, and had foreign inscriptions on the disk.

The Pharaoh hesitated then activated his own duel disk. "Very well, I accept your challenge." Both cried the customary opening words.

"Let's duel!"

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There it is, the second chapter. Please review for any ideas on what Efrona might be like!


	4. Chapter 3

Hey! Thanks to **The Duelist's Heiress** for the review! Here's the third chapter! Be warned, I suck at duels and this information is what I remember and what people have told me, and the dialogue is probably rather vague. There will be a bit of swearing in this one.

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Chapter Three

"I summon Beta the Magnet Warrior in defense mode. Then I place one card face down, and end my turn," Pharaoh began.

On a nearby roof, the duel was being observed by the three motorcyclists.

"So far so good. As soon as the Pharaoh's life points hit zero, his soul is ours," the tall blonde said in satisfaction. What any of the bikers didn't notice was that Efrona had vanished from the back of the group, and was slowly but with surprising agility, making her way to where they were standing, unnoticed, with the graceful, silent air of a cat's shadow.

"I hope that guy doesn't use the god cards-nothing can stand up to them!" Tea worried. Joey looked at her and said encouragingly, "Hey, don't worry Tea. There's a reason why Yugi is called the King of Games! He's almost unbeatable."

"I summon Marauding Captain to the Field! Then I'll activate his special ability, allowing me to summon Shadow Tamer to the field as well," the man declared, and two monsters, one male and one female, appeared on the field, facing the small metallic form of Beta the Magnet Warrior.

"But the worse is yet to come, Pharaoh! I'm about to play a card more powerful then the three Egyptian God cards-the Seal of Orichalcos!" He slapped down the card, and a circle of eerie, luminescent green descended onto the field around the two duelists. It widened, throwing Joey, Tristan and Tea back with its energy.

"Tea, Tristan, Joey!" Pharaoh yelled, and he towards their fallen forms, only to hit the boundary of the circle itself. The Seal is completed when a series of lines connected together to form a six pointed star in the circle. Efrona drew breath sharply. _No, this is too familiar…_

The stranger cackled spitefully. "The Seal of Orichalcos prevents duelists from leaving until there is a victor. When the duel is over, the victor may leave intact, but the loser's soul will be locked inside the Seal," he chuckled, raising his head. On his forehead, blazing unnaturally bright green, a miniature form of the Seal of Orichalcos shone on his forehead. Efrona bit her lip in worry.

"Magic huh? I am no stranger to ancient magic. Behold the power of the Millennium Puzzle!" the Pharaoh declared, and the Eye of Horus shone on his forehead, as well as shining on the Millennium Puzzle. However, both golden symbols soon faded. The Pharaoh stepped back a little in shock. The strange duelist gave a large smirk.

"The Orichalcos existed long before your puzzle, Pharaoh. Your toy is useless, while the Orichalcos exists on my side of the field, and strengthens each of my monsters!" the man explained cockily. The Seal gave a renewed flash of light on his forehead, and the eyes of both his monsters became tinted with red, filled with hatred and darkness. Their attack though, rose by 500 points each, and at their master's command, destroyed the Pharaoh's monster. The Pharaoh flipped his face down card up-Soul Rope, which allowed him to summon any four-star monster in his deck at a cost of 1000 life points. He chose Gamma the Magnet Warrior, but the other simply laughed.

"You'll have to do better then that Pharaoh. I place one card face down and end my turn."

Joey, Tea and Tristan limped back to the Seal's boundaries to watch the duel, wincing, nursing their wounds and scratches from being shoved backwards so roughly. Efrona stood in the shadow near the where the bikers stood, watching. She admitted to herself, the psycho man was pretty good at duelling. He got the upper hand. Still, she whispered under her breath, "You will suceed Pharaoh-your belief makes this fact." That was the exact same subconscious thought the Pharaoh had whispering in the back of his head.

" Now I summon Alpha the Magnet Warrior-" Pharaoh began, but was cut off by his opponent.

"You've activated my trap card, Hidden Soldiers, which allows me to summon Makyura the Destructor, with an extra attack point boost." Before he could say anything more however, Pharaoh took charge once more.

"You've just activated _my_ trap card, Shallow Grave, allowing me to bring back a monster from the graveyard-Beta the Magnet Warrior! And since you have no monsters of your own in the graveyard, you can not summon a monster with this magic card in play. Now, my monsters, combine to form Valkyrion the Magna Warrior!" The fusion monster hovered slightly off the ground, waiting.

"He better think of something quick, or the Pharaoh will kick his butt," Efrona heard the brown haired bikee comment. " There's plenty of time left," the red haired one said. She saw the blonde smile slightly. Typical, she thought, the bad guys send other people to do their dirty work and just sit back like some commentators at a footy show. Still, she remained dead silent, her expression in the shadows. They weren't the true source, after all.

"Valkyrion, attack the Marauding Captain!" Pharaoh commanded. The monster destroyed the other, and his opponent's life point went down to 2200. "Yeah, show him Yug!" Joey whooped as Tea cheered and Tristan grinned. Efrona was a statue, waiting. 'Wait for it, wait for it…'

"I must congratulate you on that move Pharaoh-I haven't faced a challenge like you for a while. But in the end, you will meet the same fate as all my victims."

"Don't listen to him Yugi! The only thing that can beat your Valkyrion is…an Egyptian God card…" Joey trailed off in suspicion. The madman grinned evilly. "I'll defeat you with your own Egyptian God card! First I play Monster Reborn, to bring back the Marauding Captain," he began the course to summoning a god.

"Only certain duelists can use an Egyptian God card." Pharaoh warned, but the man ignored him and sacrificed all three of his monsters. A loud rumble tore through the area, as Obelisk the Tormentor appeared. Both it and its master's eyes were tinted red from the Orichalcos Seal, as its attack points raise to 4500! Everyone stared at the monster in shock.

The man laughed triumphantly. "The power of the Orichalcos merges the most powerful creature that ever existed with the most incredible force ever imagined! You are trapped in a circle of doom Pharaoh, and soon your soul will be sealed for all eternity! Now Obelisk, attack!"

The god destroyed the Pharaoh's Valkyrion, reducing his life points to 2000.

"It'll take more then that to keep Yugi down!" Joey yelled in defiance to the man's prophecies of doom.

"Ha! There's not a card in your deck that can defeat Obelisk!" the man addressed the Pharaoh with a smug smirk.

_I think he's right, Obelisk is stronger then ever, thanks to the Seal of Orichalcos_, Pharaoh thought. His face flickered with hesitance.

"Damn, don't give up now, Pharaoh," Efrona hissed under her breath. "This is not the worse yet to come." The brown haired one suddenly turned slightly from his position on the balcony, and she shrank further into the shadows, in case he heard her. She had nothing to fear, he was only addressing his accomplices.

"The boss warned us that the Egyptian God cards and the magic of the Orichalcos might not mix too well," he said.

"Nah, the geezer's probably just getting to old for this," the crimson haired one said.

The blonde one laughed it off. "that's why we made him duel first-to test the Pharaoh's strength." Efrona nearly let out a curse at the trio above her. They were just going to use the poor man and throw him away. They knew the outcome of this duel already. Did the man know down there, or was he so confident of his abilities that he did not realise that he was an experiment for the others, who held higher rank of duelling then him?

The Pharaoh played Graceful Charity, summoned Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts in defence mode, placed a card face down, then ended his turn. 'There's something to look out for' Efrona thought in amusement. She had noticed that throughout most duels, face downs were usually a devastating blow or a major support.

Evidently the challenger had recovered from whatever had ailed him before, and continued with the duel. "I set one card face down. Now Obelisk, attack his monster!" he roared in triumph. It had no chance against Obelisk, and was blown to smithereens.

"The Age of Destruction is here, and the earth shall be shrouded in darkness. The Pharaoh's soul will fuel the force that devastates mankind," the man declared. I take what I said back, Efrona thought, he's willingly become a schizo.

"What do you mean?" The Pharaoh questioned. Don't ask him Pharaoh, Efrona mentally groaned, he will only keep blabbering about the new age.

"A great beast is now awakening from its ancient slumber to complete what it began centuries ago. But before this beast can arise, it must absorb enough souls," the other gives courtesy enough to explain. Drat, Efrona thought, they really are the three swordsman of the Orichalcos. So how did your master persuade you to join?

"This sounds familiar," Tea pondered.

"Wait, Weevil and Rex said nearly the same thing before!" Joey realized.

"Who are you, and how do you know these events will happen?" The Pharaoh asked sharply. 'They won't answer' Efrona silently commented, 'but at least you don't try anything dirty. Those three up there will never hand the god cards back, but I don't know much else, with such limited knowledge. There's only so much I can find out about this whole situation.'

"You ask too many questions," the brown haired of the trio commented from his place. Efrona pressed herself against the wall as Joey whipped around to the sound of the voice.

"Who do you think you are, you punks!"

The blonde haired one smirked, and held up two cards. Efrona managed a glimpse at them, and her heart sank. It confirmed what she believed in.

"We are soul collectors," he said shortly. The cards had the faces of Weevil and Rex trapped behind the Seal of the Orichalcos. Their expressions were of terror and surprise. Efrona clenched her teeth to avoid doing something rash-like climb up and just grab the two cards and the god cards from them. It probably wouldn't work.

'Wait a minute; this is just like what Pegasus did to Kaiba and Mokuba with his Millennium Eye!' The Pharaoh recalled the pictures of the cards Pegasus had held up-the two Kaiba brothers' souls trapped in two separate cards. But how did they have that kind of power?

"The sooner you make your move, the sooner Obelisk will wipe out your life points!" The guy called out impatiently. To his surprise and annoyance, the Pharaoh let out a slight smirk.

"Obelisk is powerful, but not unbeatable. That card belonged to me, and I'm quite familiar with its strengths and weaknesses."

The Pharaoh played Monster Reborn to bring back Valkyrion the Magna Warrior. His opponent wasn't impressed-he had already defeated it once. It confused Efrona as well, and she considered herself a pretty good player. The Pharaoh then ordered it to disassemble into three parts once more, then activated the magic card Brave Attack. She understood now what he was going to do, and smiled.

He sent Alpha the Magnet Warrior to attack Obelisk. It slashed Obelisk, then returned to the Pharaoh's side of the field. He repeated the same procedure with Beta the Magnet Warrior. His opponent laughed.

"Your monsters can't even _scratch_ Obelisk," he said scathingly.

"Really? Look again," the Pharaoh countered.

Sure enough, a huge scratch had appeared across the towering blue monster. That was the ability of Brave Heart, Efrona remembered. It allowed his monsters to combine their attacks, adding their attack strengths together.

"So, Alpha's got 1400 attack points, and Beta has 1700..." Joey tried counting off, but his brain did not seem to be registering the numbers too quickly at that moment.

"It's a total of 3100," Tea sighed at Joey's slowness sometimes. Sometimes? Oops, she meant most of the time.

"Obelisk has 4500 attack points, so he needs 1500 more to beat him-and that's exactly what Gamma has. Gamma, finish this!" he roared, and Gamma dealt with what was left of Obelisk's strength. Obelisk exploded as it was destroyed.

"Yes! Go Yugi!" his friends cheered ecstatically.

"Hmph, the Pharaoh just got lucky," the brunette teenager of the trio above Efrona dismissed. She mentally snorted. In your blind eyes, maybe, she thought scathingly, and she nearly blurted it out. The brunette, who had a distinct, charming Australian accent, knocked off what charm he had with what he was doing.

"The Pharaoh will need more then that to break the Seal of Orichalcos," the blonde agreed.

The opponent sneered angrily. "I don't need Obelisk to beat the Pharaoh," he snarled. He played Card of Sanctity, forcing both players to draw until they both have six cards.

"At least they're even now," Tea reasoned.

"Yeah, but don't forget that the other guy still has his magic circle on the field, giving his monsters a power boost," Joey pointed out.

The Pharaoh summoned Watapon. The other guy protested that it was his turn, but the Pharaoh countered by saying its effect allowed it to be summoned to the field as soon as he drew it. The other sneered and summoned Warrior Dai Grepher to the field.

"I activate my trap card, Dark Renewal. This allows me to sacrifice one of my opponent's monsters, along with one of my own, to summon a spellcaster from my graveyard," Pharaoh said. Efrona could bet what it was going to be-it was the one he favoured.

"I sacrifice Warrior Dai Grepher and Watapon to summon the Dark Magician!"

"I never sent your magician to the graveyard!" his opponent cried. But then he realised-The Pharaoh must have sent it to the graveyard himself when he played Graceful Charity and discarded two of the three cards. The command to attack was given.

"I activate Shield Wall!" the opponent cried, and four stone mosnters appeared to protect his life points. Only one was destroyed. He then activated another card, Bronze Knight. He discarded three cards from his hand and summoned three Bronze Knights to the field.

"Hold on-you've got six monsters on the field," the Pharaoh said, startled.

"Yeah pal, you should check the rules-page three of the rule book clearly states that only five monsters per duelist can be in play," Joey added.

"You should get a new rulebook then," the blonde soul collector taunted. "The Seal of Orichalcos doubles the number of monsters a duelist is allowed."

"That's unfair!" Tea yelled.

"They've been playing dirty since the start of this duel," Efrona muttered so no one could hear.

"Your lone Dark magician is no match for my army of monsters!" the Pharaoh's opponent crowed. The Pharaoh narrowed his eyes. "My move."

He set two cards face down, then summoned Queen's Knight in defense. The other bagan to draw, but the Pharaoh turned up one of his face downs-Dust Tornado-and set it on the Seal of Orichalcos. Efrona winced. That wasn't an ordinary card, as they must now know. She was better informed then them though, and the Pharaoh just made an accidental mistake in trying to destroy it with a trap card.

When the dust cleared, the Seal still remained. There were cries of shock from all of them except the opponents.

"The Seal of Orichalcos is too powerful to be destroyed by a measly trap card," the blonde, who Efrona guessed was in charge out of all of them, said contemptuosly.

The challenger continued his turn. He played the magic card, the Warrior Returning Alive, and brought back the Warrior Dai Grepher from the graveyard. Already gaining a power boost from the Seal of Orichalcos, he added another card, Allied Forces, which raises its attack again, as well as raising the Bronze Knight's attack points. He used the strengthened Warrior to destroy Dark magician, but as he was going for Queen's Knight, the Pharaoh activated a magic card, Magical Academy, allowing Queen's Knight to escape the attack, and replacing her with Dark Magician Girl. The Dark Magician Girl's power raised because of the Dark Magician in his graveyard.

"A few extra points won't help you against my warriors," his opponent dismissed.

The Pharaoh knew there was one card in his deck that could help him. This was the major draw. 'Please, Heart of the Cards, guide me' he prayed silently, then drew. 'Perfect.'

He activated Diffusion Wave Motion, allowing Dark Magician Girl to attack multiple times after paying 1000 life points. She sliced through the Shield Wall monsters, then the Bronze Knights, and finally struck down the Warrior Dai Grepher. That finished the duel, as the other duellist lost all of his life points in that devestating attack. The Pharaoh sank to his knees in exhaustion, and Efrona leaned forward a little to observe what happened next. He demanded his god cards back, and she tensed, waiting.

"No! The god cards are ours!" he refused, and threw Obelisk to the blonde soul collector, who pocketed the card in his brown leather trench coat pocket. Her eyes zoomed in on their location. Don't do something rash, she told herself. Not that it really helped her emotions. They had stolen them! Momentarily her eyes turned to the poor challenger who lost the duel.

The Seal of Orichalcos enclosed around the man, and the eerie green glow shone brighter, forming a tunnel into the sky. He gave a final yell as his soul was sucked out of his body and he fell senseless to the ground. The Seal faded, satisfied with its payment. Her anger grew at the blonde's next words.

"Oh well, it was the man's own fault."

The brunette agreed, and added, "At least we know more about Yugi's duelling strategies." The three half turned, and Efrona shrank flat onto the wall, nails trying vainly to dig into something besides her palms from fury. She couldn't resist her own rash plan. Quietly, she crept in between two of the large motorcycles parked further back, and peeked between the spokes, trying to see through the dimness and shadow. She heard the conversation though.

"Stop! The three Egyptian God cards are mine! Return them at once!" Pharaoh roared angrily. They turned back to look down on the group.

"You have to beat all three of us to win them back," the blonde said. "But for being such good sport, here" Two cards were thrown down to them-the souls of Weevil and Rex. Their image slowly faded from the seals. He had released them, though Efrona's personal opinion was that it wasn't a good idea, considering the pair's lust for the god cards and to get back at Yugi.

Joey ran forward and yelled countless threats involving a whole lot of beating the crap out of someone up to them. Surprisingly, the brunette one laughed. "I like him. Reminds me a bit of meself, only dumber and less attractive." To Joey, he said, "There's no rush, Wheeler. We'll fight soon. Names Valon, remember that." They turned around and headed back to their bikes. Efrona tensed, like a viper in the bushes.

As they approached, she made sure she was right behind the blonde's bike. He was close enough to see her with light, now was the time.She leapt out with a slight yell like a tigress and jumped the blonde, sending him stumbling.

The Pharaoh and his friends ran to the unconscious man on the ground. The Pharaoh picked up the Seal of Orichalcos card that was lying on the floor. He showed it to his friends.

"Look, it's true. The man's soul has been trapped in the card." Behind the seal, the face of the man stared back in terror.

"Where does this power come from?" he murmured to himself.

Tea picked up something she saw on the ground. "Hey Yugi, check it out." It was the same green glowing crystal that the man wore around his neck."Do you think it has something to do with this?" Joey and Tristan came to look when Tea suddenly blinked and looked around. Pharaoh noticed. "Tea? Is something wrong?"

"Where's Efrona?"

A sudden faint shout and several "what the hells!" were heard, and they looked at the source of the noise, from the balcony that the three soul collectors had been at. They stared in shock. Efrona had jumped the blonde and managed to push all of them away from their bikes, and was snatching at the trench coat pocket where the god cards were.

"Efrona!" they yelled from below.

He was much taller and stronger then her, with two others behind who would quickly regain their wits-she had to act fast. She dove for his trench coat pocket, but his hands came down, and she dodged. She had managed to push them away from their bikes, to stall for time. Deciding that it was better she get the cards away first, she dodged their blows wildly. She knocked the brunette and the crimson haired one away, then grabbed her chance, and blocking his backhand to her stomach she slid under and kicked hard and high at his pocket. Thank the gods they were big pockets.

The blonde's whole deck soared out and sprawled behind her. Dimly she heard the pharaoh and his friends down below, but ignored them, seizing her chance. All four immediately leapt on the mess, trying to regain the god cards, but to her luck, they were right next to her head. She writhed around as if looking, sitting on the crads themselves and looking as if she was trying to regain her footing. She snatched up the cards, but the blonde, who had an extremely keen eye and knack of finding things quickly, noticed her strange thrashing movements and snatch. Before she could move, he had grabbed her and twisting her arm around, he forced her arm behind her back in a death grip, then pulled sharply. She clenched her teeth so as not to make a sound. He slammed her into a wall and she had all three eyeing her warily, the blonde with an arm up against her throat. One smash, he knew she knew, and she would die of a crushed wind pipe.

" Efrona!" Tea called out desperately. Efrona had to put on her farce. She smiled thinly and mumbled something which only served to make the blonde strengthen the pressure against her neck.

"Let her go, soul collector! She's innocent in this!" The Pharaoh roared furiously. Her eyes were panicked as she shifter her head as much as she could, trying to breath properly. Wait, she was clutching something underneath her school blazer and trying to hide into herself from the three up there.

"Call her off, Pharaoh, and tell her to hand the Egyptian god cards back. We wouldn't want to _hurt_ her in any way, would we?" the crimson haired man said. Actually, the brunette and crimson haired one looked the same as Yugi's age, 17 or thereabouts.

"Wouldn't want to harm a girl if it's not necessary," the brunette added.

"You stole them! You have no right to keep them, and they're important to him!" Efrona shouted. She regretted doing so, because more of her air was cut off. She choked and began to cough slightly, eyes shut tightly. The Pharaoh gritted his teeth. He would not let an innocent person be harmed just for the god cards. "Efrona, give the god cards to them. Your life is worth more." She reluctantly nodded her head. "But only if the blonde jerk puts me down, away from the balcony." He and the other two dragged her back near their bikes, then dropped her like a sack of potatoes. Wincing, she sat up and gave them the god cards. However, as the blonde reached out and took hold of it, she whispered, so others below couldn't hear, "Tell your master, Dartz, that the gods look down upon him. He will not suceed in what he is trying to do."

They froze, and stared at her. The crimson haired one jerked his head away from her while the brunette stared at her. The blonde hissed, "How do you know of our master, girl?"

She let out a slight smirk, and her blue side fringes covered her eyes. "Tell him the legends will mingle with each other soon. Do not tell him, and risk the danger of his limited knowledge. He shall not heed it, but I cannot say I didn't warn him. Or any of you."

Her smirk vanished as she walked away. "The connection we share is not personal. It will help in his ideas of a perfect paradise," she said, and her form disappeared into the shadows.

"Strange girl. Do you think we should tell Dartz?" Valon asked. The crimson haired one snorted. "It sounded like a bluff." But there was a hint of uncertainty in his tone. The blonde thought for a moment. It might have been a bluff, and she may have heard about Dartz through some newspaper about a man running a large corporation. However, her comment about paradise had made it almost certain she had some connection to Dartz. At the very least, he should be told.

"Later. We should go now," he said. They rode off on their bikes into the night.

"Efrona!" Tea cried, and they ran to her as her form appeared down the stairs and out into the open. "Don't do that again!"

"What were you thinking? You could have hurt yourself," Tristan added.

"And we want you to be alive, Gurlie," Joey added.

She looked down slightly. "I just wanted to help, I guess. They had no right to steal them like that, and they did seem to mean a whole lot to Yugi," she mumbled remorsefully. Yugi, or still Pharaoh, smiled a little, but shook his head. "It's more worth it if someone innocent is spared rather then killed," he said kindly to the younger girl. She offered a small likeness to the smile she wore on her first day at Domino High, which was only the day before yeasterday. "I guess. But I was so close, I had them, then I messed up and they found me out," she murmured. Joey suddenly grinned. "What?" she asked.

"You never occurred to me as da stealing type," he chuckled. She gave a slightly crooked, mischievous smile. "I don't call that stealing, I was going to return it to Yugi!" she protested, but now jokingly with Joey, and the group smiled at her recovery over the shock.

"You sure you're alright? You're pale," Tristan asked.

"Oh, that's just me-everyone thinks I'm half albino," Efrona sheepishly grinned, then stood up. "We should get out of here, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah!" they agreed whole heartedly. Tea called an ambulance for the poor man that had lost the duel. Efrona sighed and looked away from the soulless body. The idea just popped into her head. She looked at Yugi, who had seemed to shrink and his eyes were more young looking and baby-like innocence lingered there.

"Hey guys, what did they mean by soulless? What happened to the poor guy? And what's with Pharaoh?" she blurted the whole thing. They all looked at each other in panic.

"Uh, how about I explain it to you tomorrow?" Yugi said nervously. She shrugged, sending him a happy smile and nod. "Your store, morning. Your grandpa owns the Turtle Game Shop right? And no excuses." He breathed a sigh of relief. That bought him time, as he nodded.

She inwardly pondered how much the group trusted her, being new and all. Tomorrow she would find out, through his explanation.

They headed towards their homes, splitting up one by one along the way. Efrona waved goodbye at Yugi and Tea as she turned a corner and towards the apartment complexes part of town. Not the wealthier parts, but medium. Admittedly a safer part of the district then Joey's apartment.

"What are you going to tell her tomorrow, Yugi?" Tea asked at the crossroad towards her house. Yugi sighed. "I have absolutely no idea. Good night Tea."

"Night Yugi," she sympathetically touched his arm and walked to her house.

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That's it! Now, please review and leave suggestions about anything for this story! It's not that hard to press the review button!


	5. Chapter 4

Hey everyone!This is chapter four up, finally. Work really sucks, disturbs the thinking process of a story.

Thank you to **The Duelist's Heiress** for the review!

By the way, I did not watch all of the Doom saga, and am basing the bits I do know off memory.So I'm sorry if the script is wrong.

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Chapter Four

At nine in the morning, Efrona arrived at the game store and asked Grandpa Motou if Yugi was awake.

"I'm sorry, he's asleep still right now, miss…?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Efrona Kwan, nice to meet you Mr Motou," she said, eyes sparkling. She radiated the typical teenage youth in her eyes at that moment. Mr Motou smiled back, seeing as she was pleasant enough. She had a happy aura about her. "Nice to meet you too, Efrona. Do you want me to wake Yugi up?" he asked.

"Oh no, let him sleep, he had a lot of action yesterday," she refused politely.

"How did you know?" he gasped.

"I was there, Mr Motou. Thank goodness today's a weekend; he's not escaping my wrath today. Too bad, since it's erupted on my third day being in Domino!"

"Oh?" Grandpa asked. "You're new?"

"Yes. Just came a week ago, started school three days ago. Yugi, Tea, Joey and Tristan were very kind," she said gratefully.

"Where were you from?"

"Moved here from Australia," she replied. A new voice sounded from the doorway.

"Efrona?" Yugi murmured sleepily, rubbing his eyes and still in his light blue pyjamas. She abruptly turned away, looking at something else, but grinning a little. Seconds later, Yugi finally woke up completely, and raced back upstairs, very red. Efrona gave a nervous chuckle and gave embarrassed apologies to the closest person at hand, Grandpa. He just chuckled.

"It could have been worse," he laughed, and she shook her head, biting her lip to keep her laughter in. At least she was a very difficult person to get to blush, or her face would have been red right about then. But, she had to say, Yugi looked so cute in his little blue pyjamas! She voiced this comment aloud, not restraining the giggles. Grandpa Motou chuckled with her.

Minutes later, Yugi came down, dressed properly, and still blushing slightly, with the Millennium Puzzle around his neck. He faintly heard the Pharaoh chuckling through their link, and the blush took longer to wear off.

"Hey Efrona," he mumbled. She smothered her laughter enough to greet him back, still grinning.

"Hey Yugi. Bad time to come, huh?"

He nodded, the blush fading as they moved on to the reason she had come to the game store. He mentally sighed.

"Better start explaining if we want to go and meet the guys in time."

Half an hour later…

Efrona sat there with her normally serene and happy eyes open wide as saucers, back stiff. She was the perfect image of stunned. The shock soon faded off the atmosphere as she relaxed. "Wow," was all she could say. Yugi nodded.

"Yeah, it's a lot to take in; you're still new in town. Not exactly on top of the things you expect most to hear."

"Yeah, and the fact I wasn't planning on going to the same school as the legendary game king," she laughed weakly.  
"So, let me get this straight. There's a five thousand year old Pharaoh living in that upside down pyramid puzzle of yours, and he's kicked evil's butt, in Duelist Kingdom and Battle City?"  
"Yeah, pretty much," Yugi said.

Efrona stared for another five seconds before shaking her head. "This is…too weird."

"Trust me, you get used to that after a while," he reassured her.

"So, do you hear every single one of each other's thoughts?" Efrona asked curiously.

"Most of them," he replied. "But you get used to that too."

Yugi briefly described his and the gang's adventures so far, in a little detail. He didn't bother saying much about the Shadow Realm; it was too unpleasant for words. She didn't comment on some of the holes in the story he left out-he would tell in his own time, she figured, and they were details she could deduce from the facts anyway. When he finished telling, she stood up, and smiled at Yugi.

"I have no idea why you looked so nervous before, Yugi. I wouldn't eat you, even if I didn't believe you. Besides, that's one way of clearing up last night."

Yugi grinned in embarrassment. "Not many people would believe this, you know."

Efrona shrugged. "Not everyone sees souls being sucked out of bodies by evil cursed cards. At least, that's what they look like," she quickly added the last part, though Yugi didn't notice her slight haste.

"Maybe you should go meet up with your friends now, Yugi. You all agreed to last night," she said gently, and made for the door. She thought she hid the slight sadness in her voice quite well, but obviously Yugi was more perceptive then most, and saw her slight longing to be around people.

"Why don't you come with us? The more the merrier," he said with a friendly smile.

She blinked. "No, you don't have to…"

"But I want to," he interrupted. "Come on, it'll be better then going alone when you're new, right?" he pleaded. She hesitated only a moment longer before caving in, and a huge, joyful smile spread across her face in a cute way.

"Thanks Yugi," she said ecstatically. He grinned back as they called out a farewell to grandpa and went outside.

They met up with the rest of the gang and walked through the streets.

"Hey Yug, Happy Boo," Joey greeted.

"Happy Boo?" Tea asked. Tristan chuckled nervously.

"Yep. That's what Tristan called you earlier, and it fits. Any problems?"

Efrona hurriedly shook her head, with a slightly weird look on her face. "Uh, no, but change the nick name anyway?"

Efrona learnt they were planning to go check the place Weevil and Rex were at last night. "They were the ones already taken, weren't they?" she asked in a curious tone.

"Yeah, and saying weird stuff," Joey answered. "They have a lot to answer for, dose punks."

As soon as Joey and Tristan saw the heads of the two 'punks', they abruptly grabbed them by the scruffs of their collars and lifted them into the air.

"Hey, put me down!" Rex yelled, and he and Weevil struggled to remove the hands holding them up.

"We need to find out what happened, so do you two remember what you did yesterday?" Yugi quickly asked. The two males holding them up wouldn't put them down until questions were answered, so he tried to be quick.

"We were just walking, when this freak guy came up to us and forced us to duel," Rex said. "The guy squashed Weevil like a cockroach."

Weevil whacked him in the head. "He was holding me back! And he played some weird card called the Seal of something…"

Yugi inhaled sharply. "The Seal of Orichalcos?"

"Yeah, that's right!" the two exclaimed.

Tristan and Joey lowered the two boys, and they stood on their feet, brushing off their clothes.

"Did the guy mention anything about a plan to steal the Egyptian God cards?" Yugi asked urgently. Efrona gave a slight grimace, remembering the night before.

"No," Weevil said, a plan to steal them formed in his head. However, they were interrupted by Yugi's next words.

"Oh, because the god cards were stolen," he quietly said, and looked down.

"Don't worry Yug, we'll win dem back one two three!" Joey encouraged. He turned to Rex and Weevil.

"Let us know if you see three suspicious biker punks," he said, and they headed away. Efrona heard faint chuckling when they were some distance away and inwardly felt sorry for Yugi's naiveness at times. It was good he was honest and kind, but those two did not have kind intentions.

They strode down the street, and Tristan recounted what happened so far.

"First, things got freaky at the museum, and then monsters start appearing around the world, and now a gang of bikers is stealing people's souls with a Duel Monsters card!"

Why does this weird stuff always happen to us?!" Joey groaned. Yugi walked along in silence, his face a mask of worry and sadness.

"Do you think all these things have something to do with one another?" Tea asked no one in particular.

"Biker punks always have leaders though," Efrona suddenly voiced.

"Huh?" Tea asked, turning to her curiously.

"Punk groups usually have a leader, or a top dog, whatever you call it," she explained.

"Isn't the leader the blonde?" Tea questioned. All the response she got was a "maybe".

"Yugi!" someone called out, and they stopped. A small girl, about Yugi's height, with blonde hair and half unframed glasses was sprinting towards them. She slowed and flung herself onto Yugi in a near toppling embrace.

"Er, hello," Yugi said awkwardly.

"Do you know who she is, Yugi?" Tea asked, looking a little pissed.

"Uh…" Yugi stuttered.

"You don't remember me Yugi?" the girl asked half disappointedly. She held up a card, and they looked. It was the Ties of Friendship duel monsters card. Yugi suddenly felt like a light bulb had been turned on in his head.

"Oh! Rebecca Hawkins," he realised.

"Oh no-it's that brat!" Joey cried out, horrified. "But she looks different. Did she get a haircut?"

"No," Tristan answered. "She just traded her teddy bear for glasses."

Rebecca growled slightly, then tossed her head back. "I don't need teddy to protect me, because Yugi is my boyfriend!" she announced proudly, nearly strangling Yugi's arm as she hugged it tightly to her. The group stared, dumbfounded, except for Efrona, who suddenly giggled.

"What's so funny?" Rebecca demanded.

"I'm sorry-but from a distance, you two being the same height and all, you actually do look rather cute. That, and Yugi's going red," she managed between laughs. The gang stared at her as if she was a freak, and Tea tried to whack her over the head. She dodged, calming down slightly. "What? It was just a passing comment."

Rebecca beamed. "I like her," she stated, then held out her hand. "Rebecca Hawkins."

Efrona shook the hand. "Efrona Kwan. Pleased to meet you," she said with a slight smile.

Rebecca still clung to Yugi's arm. Joey shook his head at the whole scene.

"Another weird event to add to the list," he sighed.

"We'd better stay out of it, man," Tristan said.

Tea fumed at Rebecca still clinging to Yugi's arm, and also still partly from Efrona's comment before.

"Oh yeah, Yugi, my grandpa wants to see you," Rebecca remembered, and led the way to the museum, after finally letting go of Yugi's poor arm.

She led them to the Egyptian exhibit in Domino Museum, where both Mr Hawkins and Mr Motou was standing in front of the stone tablet.

"Ah, Yugi, just the person I needed to see," Mr Hawkins said with a slight greeting smile.

"Hello Mr Hawkins. Is something wrong?" Yugi asked in concern. The other got directly to the point.

"I have a theory that all of these monster sightings have something to do with you, Yugi," he stated.

The jet streaked across the ocean waves, heading towards the small island in the distance, from which a tower like fortress could be seen. Three observers gazed out from the jet.

"Home sweet home," the brown haired one said.

"Wait until we tell the boss we've found the Pharaoh," the blonde one smirked. The ruby haired one gazed in thoughtful silence.

"What about the girl?" he said after a few moments. The blonde stopped smirking, but the confidence didn't waver.

"Our master will know if we left anything unsaid out, but she will not be much of a threat to him," he stated confidently.

There you go!Please review!It'll only take a few minutes.


	6. Chapter 5

Finally I have chapter 5 posted! Sorry it took so long, trying to find the best way to keep inspiration alive. Amazing, that this story has still kept going-I'm infamous for running out of ideas completely, sadly.

* * *

Chapter Five

"These carvings confirm what I've suspected all along-that you share a bond with the five thousand year old Pharaoh," Mr Hawkins stated.

The group looked at each other, sharing the secret between their glances. Well, most of them did, except Efrona, who put on an expressionless face.

Mr Hawkins continued. "I've spent the latter part of my career studying Duel Monsters, and it's far more than just a game. Egyptian sorcerers discovered a way to seal real monsters away in stone tablets. As more monsters were collected, the sorcerers' powers grew stronger until the shadow magic spun out of control and threatened to destroy all life on earth. But one man was able to turn the darkness to light—the great Pharaoh whose power you carry, Yugi."

Yugi thought over his words carefully, fitting the bits of information in with the ones he already had. "So that explains what's happening now! Have these monsters come back?" he murmured.

"They have, but I'm afraid there's more to it then just that." He looked at all of them for a second. "Have any of you heard of the lost city of Atlantis?"

"I have, I read a book about it," Tea said, startled. The gang looked at her in silence. Then Joey called out, "nerd!" She became annoyed. "Shut up Joey." Beside her, a slender smaller figure stiffened slightly, unnoticed as she was deadly quiet. She managed a slight smile for the two arguing people's sakes.

Professor Hawkins explained of his findings of a place he suspected to be Atlantis, a city that existed long before Egypt. But what really caught his attention were the carvings he saw. He pulled out a few photos from his pocket, and showed them to the whole group. They stared in surprise and then broke out into comment.

"No way! They look just like Duel Monsters," Yugi exclaimed to sum them up. Efrona looked at them. She shook her head and lightened her expression.

"These tablets look older then your theory of duel monsters coming from Egypt though, Professor," she pointed out. Tristan and Joey peeked over her shoulder, which wasn't hard considering she was short for her age and they were tall.

"How can ya tell?" Joey asked. She pointed at the fading spots, slightly blurry patches, and weird patches of colour in the photo. "The tablet from Egypt was in much better condition then this one. Also by how worn away some of the parts are, and the colour fading. The wearing is natural, while the tablet here is…unnatural?" She trailed off suddenly, and spoke no more. She was uncomfortable with what she had last said.

Professor Hawkins nodded approvingly. "Yes, you're correct. These photos lead me to believe that these monsters didn't originate five thousand years ago in Egypt, but ten thousand years ago in Atlantis."

Mr Motou leaned forward, shocked. "Your discovery could rewrite history!"

Professor Hawkins only shook his head though. "There's still quite a bit that I don't know though." Maybe it was his imagination, but he thought he heard the whisper of, "for good reason." A slight chill went down his spine, but he could not locate where the weak voice had come from, so he brushed it off as his imagination.

Yugi pointed out that monsters were attacking the city. Efrona looked at it with pity on her face, as Yugi enquired about it.

"Only some of the monsters are destroying the city, though," he replied. Yugi speculated aloud, "I wonder if this means that some of the monsters are good," as he remembered the attacks he saw earlier, the aggression and malice in their eyes.

Mr Hawkins went on to explain his astonishing and somewhat far-fetched new theory. He believed there was a parallel world of monsters that existed along side the dimension they were in, and throughout history, there had been people who were able to release monsters. Some helped mankind; others have tried to destroy it. The tension in the air from this revelation was thick, and easily cut. Even Efrona's lively attitude had been smothered into a grave face. Actually, she had been like that for most of the day.

Tristan suddenly emitted a nervous laugh. "Give us a break, Mr Hawkins," he chuckled nervously, trying to cut the atmosphere. It worked a little, though not much. Rebecca kicked his knee hard, and he winced.

"Shut up! Anyone who messes with my grandpa messes with me, so keep your comments to yourself!" she snapped. He wasn't too perturbed by her threats, but more by her physical strength when angry. It was almost as bad as Tea on a bad day.

Professor Hawkins laid one soothing hand on his granddaughter's shoulder. "Calm down Rebecca. I'm no stranger to ridicule, and it is a bit far-fetched."

"But it's true!" she protested angrily.

Joey cut through the protests. "I believe you, professor." His face abnormally serious, he looked to the side, deep in thought. "After all the weird things we've been through, I'll believe anything!" Involuntarily, he was reminded of Battle City. Mai and Bakura were sent to the Shadow Realm. How was that to be explained logically? Also when Ra attacked, it wasn't a hologram, but the real thing, in all its frightening power.

"There's plenty of stuff that can't be explained," Yugi said aloud. He gently touched the Millennium Puzzle. "Like the Pharaoh living in my puzzle."

Rebecca took over part of the explaining. "This hypothesis suggests that all these supernatural phenomena being experienced may trace back to Atlantis."

"Whoa, big words coming from such a little kid," Tristan quipped. None of the guys liked Rebecca's first impression, back before Battle City. Rebecca exploded again; it might as well have been a battle of who could piss the other off more.

"I'm not a little kid! I'm a college student!" she yelled.

"WHAT?!" they yelped in shock.

Professor Hawkins chuckled slightly. "My granddaughter is quite gifted."

Rebecca smirked, and tossed her head back slightly. "I'm just your average child genius. G-E-N-I-U-S."

"I wonder if she can spell obnoxious," Joey muttered. Rebecca began to yell at him as well, when her grandpa put a hand on her shoulder again. "Rebecca, that is not the behaviour of a college student," he admonished gently.

Professor Hawkins continued his explanation, of what happened five thousand years ago. Egyptian sorcerers conjured these monsters, but the Pharaoh was there to save mankind from destruction. The very same Pharaoh reborn in Yugi, which could mean that mankind, needed him once more.

Yugi's head spun. What should they do though-try to stop the monsters entering their world, or find out what that weird motorcycle gang was up to?

Suddenly he remembered something. He pulled out the crystal that belonged to the bearded man Pharaoh, or Yami, had duelled against, and held it out to Professor Hawkins.

"Have you ever seen this before, Professor?"

Professor Hawkins took the stone and examined it closely. "This stone is incredibly like something I discovered on my expedition. Do you mind if I take it back to the lab?" he asked. Yugi agreed instantly.

The professor checked the time, and realised it was time for him and Rebecca to leave for the airport. Grandpa Motou volunteered to accompany them to the airport, and both he and the professor got into the taxi. Rebecca hugged Yugi, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Cutie," she giggled, to Yugi's embarrassment, then hopped into the taxi and left. Tea fumed after the disappearing taxi, and Efrona suddenly giggled both at the scene and at the fact Yugi was flushing red again.

Yugi sighed. "Just when I think things are getting back to normal, they went and got ten times weirder!" he huffed. A spectral form drifted from his puzzle, and Yami was next to him.

"This time the situation seems more treacherous than ever," Yami agreed. He disappeared back to his 'home'.

Suddenly Yugi jerked a bit, unnoticeably. He thought he had just heard someone call out for help. He looked around. There was no one around besides his friends, who were chattering away. Except Efrona, who gave him a strange, curious glance, then smiled at him and looked away. He didn't put much thought to it, as it looked more like encouragement and reassurance.

Joey let out a massive yawn. "Ugh, it's been exhausting today, guys. I'm going home."

He and Tristan left together. After a moment Tea followed, moaning, "After that story, it's gonna be nightmare central for me!"

Yugi stayed behind, still looking around. He knew the Pharaoh had heard it too, so he couldn't be hallucinating, could he? A sudden touch on his shoulder had him spinning around, only to see Efrona's concerned, gentle face.

"Yugi is everything okay?" she asked. He shook off his creeped out feeling and put on a smile. "Yeah, everything's fine. I'm just paranoid," he said. She smiled at him, but he couldn't help but think that her radiant smile on the first day of school was so different from the smile she just gave, like she was suddenly being less open about herself. With good reason, after what she got dragged into.

"Not the best move, huh?" he asked lightly. She gave him a puzzled look, so he elaborated. "You know, being dragged into this and all. Sorry about that, you don't need to be involved in this."

She shook her head, and suddenly her bright smile returned at full brilliance. "Isn't that a little late now? Too many explanations already. Besides, if I never interacted with you guys, I would have never seen the bond you guys have." Yugi looked astonished, so she quickly explained herself. "Your bond together is almost unbelievable Yugi. It's like nothing can break you people apart, no matter what happens, and you give and accept it like sharing chocolate. That type of bond is so rare to find, that it's amazing all of you as a group have it together. That's a great treasure. And maybe, you don't know it, but you and your other personality are the beginning of this chain," she smiled softly at him.

Seeing his stunned face, she grinned again, her face changing from its serious, almost wistful tone of voice back to its usual cheer. "But what am I to say? It's getting late, so both of us should go. Bye Yugi!" She walked briskly in a direction, to where she lived. After a moment, he left for his own house as well.

Later on that night, as he lay in bed, Yugi again pondered about what the professor had told them. Yami appeared standing at the foot of the bed.

"If what the professor says is true, then this could be our toughest fight yet."

* * *

Deep within the island fortress, surrounded by stone serpents lit by the glow of torches, the three motorcyclists reported to their master, Dartz.

Kneeling before his strangely robed master, Rafael explained that though they found the Pharaoh, they failed to capture his soul. Dartz gave a slight smirk. "I didn't expect you to defeat him this soon anyway," he drawled. Rafael produced a small box, and presented it to his master. "But you know me master. I never come back empty handed."

The three god cards lay inside, as if waiting to be picked up. Dartz accepted them eagerly.

"I have been waiting for an eternity to hold this power! At last, I possess the necessary force to awaken the great beast!"

He placed one god card in each of the three serpent statues' mouths. His moment was ruined with what he was about to receive next.

"Master?" Rafael queried quietly.

"What is it?" Dartz asked, slightly irritated.

"A warning was given to us when we took the god cards," he murmured in a still respectful tone. He would not like this.

"Oh really? What, and by who?" he smirked slightly.

"A girl, one of the Pharaoh's friends. She warned you that the gods look down upon you, and that, ridiculously, you wouldn't succeed. Legends would mingle with each other soon, and that if you heeded this then it might help on your idea of perfect paradise. Do not warn or heed, and risk limited knowledge."

Dartz snorted slightly. "Was it the brunette girl, Tea Gardener?"

"No master. A new one, who only recently moved to Domino City. The Pharaoh called her Efrona."

Dartz shook his head, smirking a little. Whoever this girl thought she was was brave but stupid. The warning was nothing more then a pathetic scare tactic.

"Dartz, heed this warning…" a sudden breeze in the room carried these words to his ears. He closed his eyes as he searched the room for a presence. Instead, he found himself floating in black space, with tendrils of strange greenish tinged black clouds sweeping around and past him.

"Where are you, wench!" he called out in fury. What had this girl done?

There was a slight sigh, though the source was impossible to locate. "Dartz, you will not see me here, but you would do well to regard this as a warning and not a jumbled prophecy. Your darkness will be your downfall," the whisper continued, weak and faint as if from a long distance.

"Darkness is what I strive against," he sneered.

"No. Darkness is around you, Dartz, or else your subconscious would not be this murky. Darkness is natural, but you have let the Orichalcos cloud your thoughts."

"Or is this your view of darkness, girl?" Dartz retorted. "Now answer me, who are you?"

There was a pause for a second, as if considering how much she should say.

"I am one who has died and lived. One who has experienced darkness in different forms, and met light too. I serve the gods of old times. Or simply to you, I am Efrona Kwan, new friend to the Pharaoh. But beware; his guardian has arrived to see he fulfils his destiny."

"To feed the great beast his soul," Dartz said, stead fast despite his growing alarm. He heard another sigh, this time resigned.

"Believe these dark thoughts, Dartz. They will not succeed-can not be allowed to succeed."

Suddenly he was not staring at endless swirls of greenish black clouds, but back in his underground fortress, pale and slightly shaken. Rafael was looking up from his kneeling position, uncertain as to why his master just froze for a few seconds. "Master, are you alright?"

"I am fine! Now leave me," he snapped, gaining his composure and hiding his alarm behind irritation. Rafael, his partners Valon and Alister, all hurried out, sensing their master's disquiet. As soon as he could sense them gone from the fortress, he spoke a question that echoed through the fortress.

"How do you know so much, Efrona…?"

* * *

There! Hope you enjoyed it, and please review!


	7. Chapter 6

Ah!Finally updated!Sorry this took a while, super busy with unbelievable workload. Life can be great or a complete hectic mess.

My updates may be infrequent, but I should have some time on my hands since it's holidays here, so I'll try my best.

Thank you to reviewers **The Duelist's Heiress**, **Pharaoh Felicia** and **Koragirl** for their reviews.

* * *

_Pharaoh, soon events will test your inner strength…_

The whisper echoed almost non-existent through the impossible maze of the Millennium Puzzle. The Pharaoh, already restless from thinking about previous events, jerked his head up from his sitting position on a stairway. For a moment, he was sure he had heard a voice. He listened hard.

_Allies will be found…_

Again it was so faint; he wasn't sure whether it was something he really heard, or a drifting voice from a broken memory. Sometimes that happened, when he would get whiffs of a memory, but no more than a voice, flash. It frustrated him how he could not work his own mind out. So he dismissed the voice as a flash, for its faraway quality.

Later on that night though, he and Yugi would receive just what the voice said-allies. They would discover the very world they heard about from Professor Hawkins. And within, their greatest alley frozen in ice.

In a bedroom inside a small apartment, a girl lay on her bed; eyes half closed and the colour of water fog silver-blue, staring blankly at the ceiling, and halfway to lucid dreaming. Her spirit travelling.

* * *

With a start, Yugi awoke from his bed. He quickly recounted over his dream. He and Yami were summoned to the dimension of duel monsters, where they talked to Dark Magician Girl, and saw a handful of other monsters. They had just freed a dragon from its ice imprisonment, somehow knowing its name. Timaeus…

He was suddenly aware of a light shining in through his window. "What, morning already?" he asked himself. He peered out, and gasped. That light wasn't the sun! He dressed hurriedly and sprinted outside, to stand next to his grandpa on the sidewalk. They stared at the light in the distance.

"All the monsters seemed to be trapped in the light," Grandpa Motou observed.

"Oh no, it's happening!" Yugi gasped, and dashed away towards the source of the light.

"Hey, Yugi!" Joey cried, as Yugi reached the town plaza. As with many other people, Joey, Tea, Tristan and Efrona had gathered to watch the strange light.

Crystals of ice seemed to form in the sky, and more and more monsters were being absorbed by them. Yugi felt a mixture of dread and anticipation, the combination he got just before something was going to happen.

The ice chunks shattered in the sky, raining miniscule glittering shards of ice onto the ground. As the ice cleared, a gigantic eye was revealed. Yugi felt a shock ripple through his mind-it was the same eye he saw in his dream last night, devouring the creatures of the duel monster dominion. He heard Tea gasp in shock, Joey and Tristan starting to say, "What the hell…" and the Pharaoh stirring, ready to take over if needed. Efrona stood next to him, looking up at the light. The light danced across her face, and was extremely difficult to read the expression because of Yugi's angle. However, he thought he heard a resigned sigh, so soft it could have been the wind.

"Dartz, your grief and clouded mind will drive you to failure," the girl murmured inaudibly to herself.

For a moment, she thought she heard laughter, eerie and spine prickling. This wasn't good. She backed away slightly to her other friends. 'The test starts from here-were you the chosen duellist?' she thought.

The eye in the sky suddenly glowed with a brighter light, as if pooling the light it emitted into a giant ball. It struck out, hurtling towards Yugi's form in a powerful beam. People screamed as they ran away from the approaching beam, but he stood his ground. His duel disk was glowing, and he had a feeling he knew what was the top card.

Quickly he whipped out the top card. The Eye of Timaeus looked back at him readily. Bravely he stood tall and held it up, summoning.

An enormous dragon appeared before him, scales glinting green in the light. Wasting no time, it sent a vicious torrent of fire straight to the eye. It shattered into pieces, also stopping the attack.

Just like the laughter, Efrona thought she heard a gasp in the wind. She ignored it. Really, she was so stupid have forgotten to break her dream connection. She shut her mind from it, and returned an enraptured gaze to Yugi. He seemed to be seeing something amidst the falling shards of the broken eye.

Timaeus vanished, and in its place Dark Magician Girl appeared before him in a spectral like form. She began to speak, urgently.

"Pharaoh. You have only just begun. The great beast is still weak, so he retreated for the moment, but many monsters still remain imprisoned on the other side. The great beast will return again more powerful than before. He must be stopped before he is fully restored!" Saying this, she faded in a pinkish glow, which turned into sparkles fluttering in the wind.

Yami appeared beside a worried Yugi.

"Timaeus is strong-but not strong enough," Yugi thought aloud.

"Yes," Yami answered quietly back. "We must release the other two dragons."

As the friends regrouped, Efrona slowed, looking at Yugi. It seemed he was talking to himself to other onlookers, but she knew better. For her, a second Yugi stood next to him-the Pharaoh. A tiny smile lifted the corners of her mouth.

"The first chosen duellist is revealed," she murmured.

* * *

The mood was tense inside Yugi's bedroom, as they watched the news report on his laptop. Strange illuminations in the sky and unusual weather patterns were the strangest amongst the report. Eventually it was wrapped up by the wondering of whether these events were related to the monster outbreaks.

"Hmm, seems that what happened in Domino last night happened everywhere else too," Tea pondered.

Joey grabbed the Eye of Timaeus card from Yugi. "With this," he declared, "Yugi was able to kick that thing's butt-until it comes back again."

Tristan snitched the card from Joey. "I still don't get how a duel monster's card was able to do all that," he said, waving it around.

Joey snatched it back. "Hmph, a real duellist can tell this card is special, and has to be handled with care."

Yugi took the precious card back, saying, "There's no telling what else this card can do."

'That's true. The card contains the spirit of an ancient dragon, and although it protected us, it could be dangerous,' Yami sent through the mind link.

Tea gave a frustrated shake of her head. "We really should do something…" Joey shook his head. "But what, Tea?"

Tristan ticked off their problems. "We could start with the monster sightings...or the giant eye that tried to kill us...or that motorcycle gang that goes around stealing people's souls!"

Yugi puzzled over it, and felt Yami stir in his mind to speak again. 'The secret lies in your hand Yugi.' Efrona tapped his shoulder. "Did you get that dragon in a dream or something?" she whispered curiously. He started at her-she had hit the nail right over the head!

"How did you know?" he gasped. She gave a smile and wink. "You have no idea how readable your emotions are right now, Yugi Motou. It's proving my point."

He flushed slightly. Before he could give a stammered reply though, when both realised something had come up between Tristan and Joey-probably a smart aleck comment to a suggestion-and had begun fighting. Both had a fist in each other's shirts, and were about to have another war.

Before things could really start, grandpa came in holding a package. "It's for you, Yugi," he said. Yugi took the package with a puzzled expression. "It's from Pegasus."

"What?!" At once, chaos broke through the room. Tristan and Tea backed away from the package, grandpa moved almost right out of the room, and Joey literally dove behind the couch. They all remembered what happened to start their journey through Duellist Kingdom. Yugi stood in the centre, the only thing that hadn't moved. Efrona had shifted to peer over his shoulder and read the label. She cast a puzzled glance at everyone, then shrugged and said to Yugi, "open it and see what's inside!"

Inside were a video tape and a duel monster's card. Even so, the others were still wary of the two items.

"I say just toss them!" Tristan exclaimed.

"Wait-we should check it out," Tea argued thoughtfully. Thank goodness she was the voice of reason in here, Efrona thought. Pegasus would always have a good reason for sending such strange things, however unsettling he was.

Joey agreed with Tristan though, as memories briefly went back to when Pegasus stole grandpa Motou's soul through the video tape. "Let's just tape over this new tape with some Saturday morning cartoons!"

"But Pegasus doesn't have his Millennium Eye anymore," Tea pointed out, and Tristan agreed after some thought, remembering that Pegasus was less creepy when they left.

Yugi mentally asked the spirit, 'What should we do?'

'We should listen to what Pegasus has to say. He did invent Duel Monsters. Maybe he has something to do with what's going on.' The spirit replied.

Nodding, Yugi picked up the tape and put it inside the VCR. Efrona moved forward curiously, while the others cringed back further, expecting some sort of gold light and a couple of soulless bodies on the ground.

Pegasus appeared on the screen, a portion of his silvery white hair hanging over his left eye.

"Hello Yugi-boy. It's been so long since I've heard from you. After all we've been through together, you could at least send an email," Pegasus began, pulling a long face. Efrona gave a muffled snort. "He sounds like an annoyed ex-girlfriend," she snickered.

"I'm sure you've heard what's been happening around the world," Pegasus continued. "Luckily for me, Kaiba's been taking most of the heat. But it's ruining the reputation of my game, and I can't have that. Besides, I know who's really behind this. But it's too risky to leave any information on this tape. I must see you in person. I've left you a one-of-a-kind card. Do NOT lose that. It's the only way to get into the compound, and _they_ mustn't take it." The tape ended and blacked. For a minute, the room was enveloped in stunned silence.

"There's no way we can trust dat guy," Joey muttered. Within Yugi's mind, the Pharaoh actually thought they should go. Pegasus might be their only hope. Yugi agreed, and voiced it.

The other's considered the idea, and then Joey nodded. "In that case, I'll be right there with ya, Yug." Tea and Tristan nodded to show their assent as well.

"Thanks guys," Yugi said grate fully. Joey grinned. "Hey, that's what friends are for-to help fight the bad guys trying to take over the world!" Everyone gave a smile.

Efrona hesitated. Should she really go with them? After all, she could just lucid dream herself near them. She might intrude on their friendship. On the other hand, wouldn't it be safer to go along, just in case? She decided on the spur of the moment, and smiled happily with everyone else. She silently backed up and leaned against a window, head half turned. She noticed something strange-a ladybug sat on the window outside, tiny antennae waving. Actually, they were blinking with a dim electronic light. Looking closer, on each end of the antennae it was slightly thicker and rounded. Efrona smiled, and lightly tapped right under the spot it sat upon.

Rex and Weevil sat outside the game shop, hiding and listening to the conversation by the listening device they planted, the ladybug. Hearing of the group's plans through headphones, jealousy stirred in Rex.

"Why does Pegasus need those losers? He should have given the tape to me," Rex grumbled. Weevil smirked. "Just because we weren't invited to the party, doesn't mean we can't show up. We'll get to see where all the cards are made!"

Rex had a brief dream about a room full of cards, and Pegasus offering them all to him. He growled, "All those cards should be mine!"

Weevil stood up. "Yes! Then our decks would be unstoppable! We just have to get to Pegasus before they do."

"But how?" Rex asked.

Weevil gave yet another devious smirk. "I have a plan."

The headphones they wore suddenly buzzed and gave loud, distorted thudding noises, like being pounded on, or a light slap magnified ten fold. They both cringed and yelped, muffling them. "Ouch! The hell?!"

Efrona gave a fading smirked high above.

"Hey Efrona, whatcha doing?" Joey asked, noticing her drifting and tapping seemingly curiously at the glass. She smiled at him brightly and cheekily.

"Nothing. Just saying hi."

* * *

At the bottom of the sea, deep in a crevice, a giant eye shone out, crackling with energy.

Inside the island fortress, Dartz stood in his usual place in the dark, eerie chamber.

"Soon your time will come," he murmured. "By the might of the Egyptian gods, the beast has been reborn, and once replenished with enough souls, no one can stop us!"

His mind remembered Yugi's surprising summoning of Timaeus, to temporarily defeat the great beast. He shrugged it off without too much concern. It was only a minor setback.

Suddenly Efrona's warning came back to him. He had researched Efrona-the records said she was just an orphan from birth, her parents from overseas. She had a strange blank in them-before she was twelve, there was no record of her life. The fact she was an orphan was the only thing there. After that, there were a few more records, of her going into hospital a few times when she thirteen for various accidents and even an assault once. That was the more unpleasant parts. Then, she was just a normal teenager who got transferred to Domino High School. There was nothing out of the ordinary, yet obviously she was anything but ordinary.

He had considered her a threat, but unfortunately, not knowing enough, he eventually dismissed her, confident he could deal with her if needed. Right now, all she gave were pointless warnings, and she had not jeopardised any of his plans yet, except for the attack on his duellists. That was not much. All the same, he would keep a close eye on her. She would no doubt be near the Pharaoh, being one of his friends, so doing that would be easy enough.

Dartz called for Raphael, the blond duellist. Quietly and dutifully, he knelt by his master's feet.

"I know what to do, master. I'll find the Pharaoh, and this time I'll drain the Pharaoh's power to feed the great beast," he vowed.

"We need more than just the Pharaoh's soul," Dartz said thoughtfully. The other two duellists, brown haired Valon and crimson haired Alister, joined Raphael.

"We'll deal with the others too," Alister said. "I'll take Kaiba."

"And I've got me eye on Joey Wheeler," Valon finished.

Dartz commanded, "The Pharaoh and his friends are on their way to speak with the one we've been watching-you must reach him before Yugi does." He smirked. "Go and see Pegasus at once. As to Ms Efrona-she poses no threat yet. Let her do as she wants for now-it will make the truth more clear as time goes by, that I am doing this for the better."

* * *

Pegasus sat restlessly at his desk in his office, moonlight striping the floor in front of him.

"I can't believe the monsters I made famous are now terrorising people around the world," he sighed.

"Do you always talk to yourself like that?" A female voice suddenly came from the window.

He quickly spun in his seat, and saw Mai standing on the oversized window frame, looking smug and arrogant, duel disk around her wrist.

"You! How did you get past security?!" he gasped. The smirk on her face grew, and she jumped down into his office.

The events in there were witnessed by no one. But if anyone was listening closely that night to the moaning breeze outside, they would have heard the tortured, carried scream that ripped through Duellist Kingdom Island.

"NOOOO!!"

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, please review!


	8. Chapter 7

So tired...need sleep...

Anyway, I have not put much invovlvement of my OC here, even less than usual.I'm still working out how exactly I'm going to introduce her as a mystery officially, but it'll come to. Somehow.

Thank you to my reviewer, **The Duelist's Heiress**.

Hope you readers enjoy.

* * *

The night before the plane trip, after he thought he finished packing, Yugi spotted the card Pegasus sent him with the video tape. It was still lying on his desk.

'That's the one thing I don't want to forget!' he thought, picking it up. He remembered Pegasus saying it was one of a kind, and aloud, he asked the Pharaoh if he had ever seen another copy of the card. However, no answer came from the Pharaoh, whose spirit had manifested near the bedside, standing.

"Pharaoh?" Yugi called in confusion. The Pharaoh looked at him, startled, and gave a distracted, "I'm fine," but Yugi knew better than that. The spirit was worried.

The Pharaoh tilted his head back slightly, thinking wistfully, 'We know so little of this new enemy. But maybe, if I knew a bit more about my own past…I could be more helpful.'

"I heard that!" Yugi chirped disapprovingly at the spirit. Said person jerked his head in surprise and shock towards the under height boy. Yugi gave a small smile. "Remember, I know your thoughts. Our spirits are connected." The smile faded though. "You must be worried because I am too. The future of the whole world is depending on us! What if we mess up?"

The Pharaoh smiled at him reassuringly. It was only small, but it held a lot of encouragement-definitely the quality of a king, Yugi remembered once briefly thinking. Luckily Yami hadn't heard.

"We won't, Yugi," the Pharaoh stated firmly. Yugi sighed and nodded.

"We should get some rest-our new adventure starts tomorrow," he said, and switched off his light, falling asleep after a few minutes. His worry had finally exhausted him. The Pharaoh stared out the window, at the glowing full moon and the stars, still contemplating the future.

* * *

The next morning, the whole gang met at the airport with their luggage, ready to board the plane to see Pegasus. Calling farewell to Yugi's grandpa, they headed towards the gate of their flight. Efrona turned her head slightly back to look down one hallway and caught a glimpse of two people running down that hall, giggling. One was a flash of strange, green hair, the other brown. With an inaudible sigh, she shook her head and turned back to the current situation.

They stood outside the jet, looking at it in awe.

"Wow," Tristan said, impressed. Joey shrugged. "Eh, no big deal, I'll own a whole fleet of 'em someday."

"I wonder why Pegasus would want to see Yugi," Tea pondered. Yugi shrugged.

"It might be because he needs someone to help him duel against whoever's causing this mess."

"Then it's a good thing I'm here!" Joey said, puffing out his chest. Efrona giggled and rolled her eyes before pinching Joey in the small of his back, causing him to yelp and fall over. Everyone else sweat dropped.

Suddenly three men in suits that looked like guards arrived, asking if one of them was Yugi Motou. Yugi stepped forward, and one of them nodded before telling them to follow him. The other two picked up their luggage, allowing them the comfort to enter the jet unhindered. The inside of the jet made them stare.

"Wow, I feel like a rock star!" Tea remarked as she looked around. Tristan gave a large grin. "I bet they serve great food too!"

Joey leapt into a seat, and waved at Yugi, telling him to take a seat too, the chairs were comfortable.

While the gang was looking over the inside of the jet in excitement, the two men loading the luggage into the jet had nearly finished, but one brown bag was really heavy! Just one of them could not pick it up, so he called over the other to help him. The other one tried, in vain. In the end, one helped load the bad on the other's back, and he dumped it rather carelessly into the baggage hold. They stared at it weirdly as the bag seemed to give a slight squeak. With no more hassles now, the jet took off smoothly.

The brown bag tossed as the two boys, Weevil and Rex, shifted uncomfortably inside it.

"Everything's going as planned-despite having you feet on my head!" Weevil growled.

"You didn't think of everything," Rex whimpered. "I have to go to the bathroom!"

"Just hold it," Weevil retorted.

While the two boys in the luggage starved and froze, the gang were living temporarily in luxury, feasting on delicious food and sleeping on cushiony reclining chairs. Efrona, who sat next to Tea, absently wondered what happened to the two, but shrugged it off. If they were stupid enough to try and sneak into the luggage hold…well, it was their own idiotic choice.

As the sun rose the next day, bright and golden, they arrived at the airport, with the whole gang peering eagerly out the windows. Once they disembarked from the plane, a limo was waiting outside the airport to take them to Pegasus. They observed as the men accompanying them that far loaded the luggage into the limo's trunk, and Tea spotted the odd brown bag.

"Hey, I've never seen that bag before," Tea pointed out. The others looked at each other confused, as no one claimed it. In the end, the men took it away to the lost and found. However, Efrona could have sworn she heard an ill groan from it. 'Guess they were desperate enough to try the luggage hold after all…' she thought.

With that sorted, the limo drove them off into the city.

* * *

Seto Kaiba sat at his desk, curtly ordering one of his workers to hold all calls and tell the reporters for the last time, his company was not in any way responsible for the monster sightings. He dismissed the man out of the room.

'Someone's trying to make a fool out of me…' Kaiba thought. His cold eyes narrowed. 'I've worked too hard at repairing the reputation of this company. This has to stop.'

He contacted Roland with the intercom. "Do they have any leads yet?" he asked with his usual cold tone.

"No sir, there's nothing yet," was the reply. Kaiba cut contact, scowling.

"The timing couldn't be worse-I was about to announce my latest project," he muttered to himself.

The door suddenly banged open, and Mokuba ran in. "Seto-check out our database!" he cried urgently. "Someone's out there buying up shares from Kaiba Corp-almost half of Kaiba Corp is bought, and he's still buying!"

"What?!" Kaiba exclaimed, and checked the stats on his computer. Mokuba was right-if the person bought any more shares, they could lose control of Kaiba Corp. Kaiba hissed. "There's only one person capable of this."

The phone started ringing, loud in the tense atmosphere. Kaiba looked at the phone. "Pegasus," he stated, as he picked up the phone.

"Well-it looks like you and I are partners now, Kaiba boy," Pegasus drawled. Kaiba was incensed.

"This company is mine, and I'll never let a snake like you wrap yourself around it!" he shot back. However, the next words surprised him a bit.

"I'm not interested in your company," Pegasus said in the same drawling tone. "I just needed the upper hand so I could force you to do something for me. Since both our reputations are stake, I thought we could boost our public image by duelling each other."

"You must be out of your mind," Kaiba replied.

"But Kaiba boy, if you refuse, I'll buy the rest of Kaiba Corp and take it apart, peace by little peace."

That threat left Kaiba with no choice. Angrily, he agreed, and barely listened when Pegasus said he would set up a duel arena at Duellist Kingdom, for old time's sake. With a grunt, he stalked out of the room, Mokuba following, and took the elevator down to one of the basements.

'Seto was supposed to start building Kaiba Lands all over the world, and promised he wouldn't duel gain until they were done.' Mokuba thought sadly. 'He even locked all of his cards away so he wouldn't be tempted.'

They arrived at basement level five, and headed toward the door of a huge vault.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Mokuba asked.

"I have no choice," Kaiba said, and unlocked the vault with his key card and code. He entered, Mokuba tagging behind him, trying to think of a reason why Pegasus was threatening them.

"Maybe Pegasus was bluffing," Mokuba suggested, but Kaiba shook his head. "I can't take that chance."

He opened a locked compartment. Inside a silver briefcase gleamed dully in the dim light. He took it out. He knew he would unlock his deck at some stage, but he didn't think it would be this soon! Quickly, he took out his duel disk and deck, and then both he and Mokuba went to the top floor of the building to use the Blue Eyes White Dragon jet.

Mokuba suddenly stopped behind Kaiba, looking at the ground sadly. Kaiba stopped as well and turned around. "What's wrong?"

"I-I thought we were going to build Kaiba Land," the younger Kaiba murmured.

"We will, just as soon as I teach Pegasus a lesson," Kaiba assured with a slightly cocky tone that made his brother smile. Laughing, Mokuba ran to catch up with his already walking brother. The two had no idea just what kind of duel they were walking into.

* * *

"This is nothing like back home!" Joey exclaimed, as he pressed himself against the window, looking outside. The gang was riding in the limo through the busy city, and almost all of them were pressed up against the window, taking in the sights.

"Of course it isn't," Tristan retorted. "This is San Francisco, home of the Golden Gate Bridge and all the seafood you can eat!"

"Guys," Tea sighed. "This isn't a vacation."

"That's right, we're here to see Pegasus," Efrona remembered, but gave a slight giggle at the two boys' behaviour.

Yami phased out of the puzzle, and Efrona nearly shoved herself away in shock, since she was sitting next to Yugi, but forced herself to act as if she could not see him. She stared out the window, pretending to be occupied with watching the passing sights as she listened to what he had to say.

"They're right," the spirit said. "And based on the message Pegasus gave us, he's already in trouble.

The limo went across the Golden Gate Bridge, and if that was possible, Joey squished himself closer to the window than before. "It doesn't look gold to me!" he commented. "Hey Yug, are you taking all of this in?" Hearing only silence, he looked back. "Yug?"

"Yugi, are you alright?" Tea asked in concern, and Efrona turned back, looking brought back to earth, and looked at him in concern like Tea and Joey.

"I'm fine. I just can't stop thinking about everything we've found out this week. A magic gateway has opened up between our world and a world where monsters live, and some kind of super-monster is trying to destroy them both! And the only protection we have against it is the Timaeus card, but even that isn't enough. We have to get to the bottom of this before that monster strikes again," he murmured, more to himself than the others. Efrona tipped her head slightly.

"But Yugi, I'm sure with the-with more time, I'm sure we'll find more answers, and more ways to get rid of that freak monster! We have to be a bit more patient, that's all. We're going to see Pegasus for answers, and possibly even hints about what we could do, right?" she said.

They rode in lazy silence afterwards. After a while, the city life thinned, until they had headed way north of San Francisco, on a lonely road that seemed to cut in the middle of a desert. Golden sand was on either side of the rode, and they were protected from the heat by the air conditioning in the car. Joey noticed that Yugi's distracted air had not left him, and asked him how he felt.

"I've been better," Yugi replied. "How about you?"

"I've been worse," Joey shrugged. Yugi sighed, and finally spat out another part of his worries, since he could just feel more building up.

"Aren't you worried about what Pegasus said on the video tape? Someone's following him, and I have a feeling it's the same biker gang that stole the god cards." Sounds of agreement filled the car, and then Efrona said slowly, "…what if they already found Pegasus? That would be pretty dangerous for us."

Tea nodded, also realising where she was going. "We could be walking into a trap!"

Suddenly, Yugi's Eye of Timaeus card began glowing. He looked at it in confusion. Efrona saw as well, and a small smile made its way to her face behind him.

'The second chosen one has been discovered. His identity will come in due time to the others, but somehow I get the feeling this one isn't as fond of destiny-heck, Yugi believes, he doesn't…' she thought, lowering her eyes.

A small while passed when the limo stopped at an abandoned, run down gas station. The driver got out of the car and walked away, disappearing somewhere in the proximity of the gas station. The gang murmured in confusion, the emotion evident on their faces. Efrona looked around from the back window. The whole area just screamed 'abandoned' and 'show down' in her mind, and she felt uneasy.

They waited inside the limo for a while, and then Tea began to wonder what took the driver so long.

"We'd better go check on the guy," Joey said, and they all hopped out of the car. Some of them stretched to relieve a few cramped muscles, and they began searching the gas station. Thing was, it was empty, like a ghost place.

Joey jerked his head up. Everyone else looked at him curiously, and Efrona tilted back her head to listen. She and Yugi both heard it the next time. It was a rumbling sound, coming from outside. Out of habit, Efrona picked up and clutched a smooth round metal ball, no bigger than the palm of her land. Probably used as a weird paperweight. She fiddled with it in her palm and fingertips tensely.

The rumbling came again, and they rushed outside onto the road. Bad idea.

Just a little further down the road, a huge cloud of dust covered the plain. Out of the dust a large gang of motorcyclists raced out, all dressed in black leather and punk chains, helmets covering their heads.

"I have a feeling they're not here to rescue us," Tristan muttered.

One by one, they stopped before the group. The man that looked like the leader of the punk gang lifted his visor. "Kids shouldn't be roaming around these parts," he said menacingly.

Joey pushed both girls of their group behind him, and the other two backed them between the three, forming a tight protective circle.

"Ya have a problem?" Joey asked warily.

"Move on," Tristan spat in the same wary, edgy tone.

'Yugi' the spirit spoke through the mind link. 'This looks dangerous-let me take over.' The two switched, Yami now in control.

"What do you want?" Tea called out a little fearfully. Efrona gently nudged Tea as she stared cautiously at the motorcyclists. They just leered.

"I told you to move on!" Tristan said sharply. More leers and guffaws.

"It doesn't look like they're taking your advice," Yami said, not letting his guard down. The punks just edged closer, and they stepped back.

"We're totally outnumbered-we can't face them," Efrona said quietly.

"I have an idea-run!" Joey cried, and they dashed for the limo.

From a nearby plateau, Valon and Rafael watched the scene.

"The Pharaoh and his pals are ours," Rafael sneered. Valon agreed, smirking.

"They'll never outrun the choppers."

Before they could reach it, the motorcyclists had them surrounded. They circled around the younger gang, pulling out heavy metal poles and dragging them threateningly across the ground from their bikes. One swung his pole towards Joey, who flung his arm up, bracing himself for impact.

Efrona shoved Joey to the side, both of them falling unsteadily out of the way. She threw the silver ball she had unconsciously been clenching in her right hand, at the same time a card flew out and struck the attacker on his hand. Joey glimpsed it as a Harpie's Feather Duster card. The sharp edge pierced through the glove somehow, and he dropped the metal pole. As that happened, the little ball Efrona had flung struck the one hand holding onto his motorcycle wheel. Already unbalanced, the man fell off his bike.

The other bikers stopped, looking at their fallen comrade. None knew what just happened. Suddenly, another biker jumped out from behind a nearby mesa. It was a woman, since she wore a skirt, and she wore a red helmet to match the red bike.

"Who is she?" the other bikers shouted, but no one knew.

She began to throw more cards as she raced through the pack of bikers, effectively knocking down each one she threw a card at.

Rafael and Valon observed in surprise as their biker gang were torn to bits by the new biker. "What's going on…?" Valon murmured.

That's exactly what Tea was asking, but Tristan grabbed the opportunity the new biker had given them. Grabbing both girls by their hands, he snapped, "Let's ask questions later!" He dragged the surprised girls behind him as they all ran for the limo. Joey stopped for a second only to pick up a card used to bring the others down. He stared at it for a second, when the red biker zoomed past, snatching the card from him. But he had seen-it was Harpie Lady! So the red biker had to be Mai!

One of the bikers tried to attack her with a chain. It wrapped around her duel disk, so she tugged it forward, pulling him off his bike. The bike crashed into a gas pump, filled with gasoline. Joey gulped as a fire started. "That's not good," he yelped as he raced to the limo. He got in the inside and Tristan, in the driver's seat, hit the accelerator. They raced out of harm's way-just before the whole station exploded.

Joey looked back through the window, and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Mai riding out of the smoke, unharmed.

"Who saved us?" Tea asked aloud, voicing everyone's question. Joey grinned half dreamily.

"It was Mai. I saw her," he said. The others glanced at each other, amazed. Efrona began to nod slowly, but quickly stopped and put on a blank face.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rafael mounted his motorcycle, bored after all the action was finished. "Someone out there likes to crash parties," he grunted. "We should find out who." He drove away. Valon however, stood there still, staring at the wreckage. Then his eyes travelled to the direction Mai travelled in.

'I already know who.' He thought. 'And I know where she's going, too.'

* * *

Please leave a review!


	9. Chapter 8

Here's chapter eight! Wow, I managed to update two stories in one day!Amazing what you casn do when you become obsessed with finishing something.

Thank you to **The Duelist's Heiress** for the review!It's kept me going so far.

* * *

"Next time, let an expert do the driving," Joey grumbled to Tristan.

The limo which they had driven away had broken down after a while. Since they had no other ride, the whole group had been forced to walk along the road, carrying their luggage. Yami was still in control of Yugi's body, since roaming out the middle of no where was not the safest thing to do.

"Well, if you hadn't taken so long to get in the car, I wouldn't have had to drive so fast, and the engines wouldn't have majorly overheated!" Tristan retorted to Joey's remark. The two boys were about to go into another fight, but Tea began to yell at them both.

"Stop it you two!"

"Yes-now is not the time to be fighting each other," Yami said.

"We need a plan," Tea muttered. Well, there main objective was to locate Pegasus, which Yami voiced, hoping for some sort of inspiration.

"But it seems whoever's after Pegasus knows we're here, and they got to him first. We have to be really careful," Tea replied.

"But people," Efrona interjected quietly. "We need a ride to get to Pegasus."

As if in answer, a truck drove closer from further down the road. Tristan grinned as he made out who was driving the car from a distance. A male.

"Hey girls, put your feminine charm to use!"

"Huh?" Tea asked, as Efrona sent a confused look at him. Tea's mind suddenly grasped what he meant.

"Oh, I get it," she said. "Come on Efrona, just do what I do."

"Okay…" Efrona trailed off as they shooed the guys behind a boulder.

Both girls stood at the side of the road, right arms outstretched, thumbs up. The truck driver caught sight of them, and Tea saw this. She sent him a wink, as Efrona smiled cheekily yet cutely and waved girlishly. The driver went all goggle eyed and immediately stopped in front of the girls to pick them up.

He didn't look so happy when the boys came out with sheepish expressions.

"Great job you two!" Joey called out as they hopped onto the back of the truck. Efrona coughed as Tea sweat dropped.

They relaxed a little as they drove, wind flying past. Tea leant back onto the side, and sighed. "Ah, it's good to be on the road again," she said. "But what happened before? I'm still confused-how do you know it was Mai, Joey?"

"She was carrying the Harpie Lady card," he replied. "Plus, I got a glimpse through her helmet. I'm impressed at how she took care of dem bikers."

"Yeah, she was awesome!" Tristan agreed.

"I'm glad she's on our side," Tea smiled. Efrona decided this would be a good time to state her supposed clueless-ness of Mai.

"Mai? As in Mai Valentine, one of the Battle City finalists who ended up in that load of trouble?" Efrona asked. Everyone nodded as Joey began to go on about how awesome yet sometimes annoying Mai was.

"She sounds great," Efrona soothed his ranting. "But it's a pity she didn't stick around then." That was what was bugging Yami, and she realised it from the slight frown that had flickered across his face.

Why didn't she stick around?

A couple of hours later, the gang had arrived at Industrial Illusions, and was standing in the office complex foyer. They called out, but the place seemed completely empty.

"Is today a holiday?" Joey asked.

"If it was, why were the doors left wide open?"

Yugi appeared in spirit form next to Yami. "I have a bad feeling about this," he said. His appearance nearly scared the crap out of Efrona, who was standing next to Yugi's spirit. As it was she jumped, but when everyone looked at her, she said it was jumpiness from the silence.

"I have a bad feeling too Yugi. I suspect the thieves who were after Pegasus have already found him," Yami replied to Yugi's spirit. Tea tried a nearby phone, but shook her head-the line was dead.

Suddenly, metal security screens came crashing down at each entrance to the building, trapping them inside. They jumped and ran to the gates, pounding them, but they didn't budge. Hearing a rumbling sound, they turned around.

The red motorcycle and its rider, from before, flew down from the balcony of an upper level. It came to rest in the middle of the large floor.

"Mai?" Joey hesitantly said.

Indeed, when the rider took off her helmet, it was Mai.

"I hate to say I told ya so, but I did!" Joey crowed to his friends. Then he looked at Mai with a trace of admiration from her earlier actions.

"Hey Mai, what brings you to San Francisco?" Mai didn't answer his question, but the gaze she aimed at them didn't seem too friendly, at least to Efrona. It was almost like…hatred.

"What's with the silent treatment?" Joey complained.

"I'm not Mai," the blonde woman spoke harshly. Her words shocked them. "At least, not the Mai you knew," she finished. She drew a card from her duel disk, and realisation struck Efrona. "No!" she gasped, earning curious looks from around her.

Mai flipped the card-revealing the Seal of Orichalcos, and Pegasus' image trapped inside. The gang replayed Efrona's earlier reaction of gasping.

"Did you do that to him?" Tea cried.

"You better start talking," Joey growled.

"Or else what?" a new voice asked. Valon stood on the upper level Mai had just jumped off, Rafael beside him. He began to taunt Joey.

"Aw, your little reunion with Mai didn't go the way you expected it to?" Not paying attention to the cry of outrage from Joey, he looked at Mai. "Hey Mai, why are you keeping these guys all to yourself? Why won't you share the fun with us?"

"Mind your own business Valon!" Mai snapped. "These geeks are mine!"

Her words shocked and hurt the gang, especially Joey, as they looked at Mai. Joey, remembering their farewell at Battle City, now pleaded with her to say it was a joke, with exclamations from a disbelieving Tea and Tristan. Efrona and Yami stood silent in shock.

"I was _never_ a part of your little play group, and now I'm going to take you all apart one by one! Starting with you, Joey!" she yelled, and activated her duel disk. Except, it was different-it looked like the same type as the one who duelled Yami the night the god cards were stolen.

Joey looked shocked for a moment longer, before reluctantly nodding his head once and agreeing. He activated his own duel disk. Mai drew card first, and looked back up at them, eyes cold. "To think-I was once pathetic enough to call you a friend!" she drawled. "But now I know the truth-you were just holding back from achieving true power! So now, say hello to my real friend-the Seal of Orichalcos!" she shouted, activating the Seal card.

The Seal formed around them, the star in a circle ringed by ancient runes. Joey was once again stunned by her actions.

"The Seal's messing up your head Mai!" he cried, and pleaded with her to remember all that they went through together. But when Mai looked up, letting her hair fall away from her face, the Seal glowed on her forehead, bright and eerie. Efrona recoiled and shivered as she sensed the evil power reeking from the Seal, and the shard of green stone around her neck-it was one thing all the people working for Dartz in this way wore.

"It is as I feared-the Orichalcos controls her," The Pharaoh murmured. "This duel has to end."

"Otherwise she's going to do the same thing to Joey that she did to Pegasus!" Tea added fearfully.

"She won't, because Joey will win!" Tristan stated in confidence of his friend's abilities.

"Talk to me Mai!" Joey pleaded. "There has to be another way to settle this!" But Mai didn't reply, and played Harpie Lady in attack mode. Its attack points increased by 500 due to the effect of the Seal of Orichalcos, and its appearance changed. The Seal appeared on the Harpie's forehead and its eyes glow a menacing red. Efrona winced at the strengthening-dark magic from the Seal strengthened it.

Joey kept pleading with Mai. At this rate, someone could get hurt!

"That's the point," was her cold reply. Joey narrowed his eyes in determination, finally seeing Mai wouldn't stop the duel. Joey wouldn't refuse it or lose it to her, but he would find a way to stop it, even if Mai didn't want to stop herself. But he would still _try_ convincing her to stop

Tristan shook his head. "How could Mai side with the enemy?"

"It's all because of that Orichalcos thing," Tea said angrily.

"And now one of them will lose their souls," The Pharaoh added grimly.

"You can't do this Mai!" Tea cried out to the blonde woman. "You're putting your own life in danger!"

Yugi appeared in spirit form, tense. "We have to do something!" Yugi cried to the Pharaoh as he watched the scene, but the Pharaoh replied negative. Their Millennium Puzzle was powerless against the Seal.

Valon leaned down slightly from the upper floor balcony. "Oi, Pharaoh, quit mumbling to yourself down there," he called out. "Nothing can break the Seal of Orichalcos. Once it appears, it doesn't disappear until a soul's been taken."

Rafael shifted beside him. "As soon as she takes Wheeler's soul," he added. "I'm taking yours, Pharaoh." Efrona scowled up at him and, remembering their last encounter where he had her pinned, he smirked at her.

"Get back in your cage," Mai yelled up to him. "Once I'm through with Wheeler,Yugi belongs to me!"

"I never liked her," Rafael muttered to Valon. "Any more lip from her and she's next." Valon just smiled. "Give her a break," he replied. "She's still new at this. Besides, she's kinda cute when she gets mad."

"When are you going to make your move?" Mai asked Joey impatiently. But Joey was still trying not to duel. He replied back, saying he was afraid he would win, and if he did, Mai would lose her soul.

"I have no soul," she hissed.

"The Mai you knew is gone. I traded her soul for power," this cold Mai said still in that cold, sharp drawl. "The old Mai was too lonely and pathetic. Now my weak side is gone for good."

"I liked the old Mai," Joey replied. "And I'm gonna get her back."

He began his move, summoning Alligator Sword in defence. 'I need to think of a strategy,' he thought.

"That's a pretty lame move," she sneered, and summoned another Harpie Lady. Its attack points increased to that of the first because of the Seal. She used the Harpie she just summoned to attack Alligator Sword, and used the second to attack Joey directly, reducing his life points to 2200.

"I can't watch," Tristan moaned. "Not if he's going to lose on purpose to save Mai!"

Yugi, watching in spirit form, asked Yami if Joey would really lose the duel on purpose to save Mai. If he did, he would lose his soul. But Yami didn't know. It wouldn't be the first time Joey risked his life for Mai though. He remembered when Joey stood in front of Mai to protect her from Ra's attack during her duel with Marik in the Battle City finals. Yugi had to jump in front of them to save the two.

"But this time, the force we're up against is too strong," Yugi said. "We can't stop it."

"Don't give up yet," the Pharaoh replied. "We may have something that's capable of defeating this evil power-the Eye of Timaeus." Thing was, he wasn't sure how to use it to save Joey.

'I'm sorry my Pharaoh, but Timaeus cannot interfere with this duel,' Efrona thought sadly, seeing him looking at his Timaeus card. Rafael also saw the Pharaoh looking at his card, and his eyes narrowed. 'If the Pharaoh thinks he can use his new dragon to get his friend out of this, he better think again.'

Mai sneered at her early lead. "I knew you'd be easy to beat," she said. "But I didn't think it would be this easy." She set a card face down and ended her turn. Joey was in a quandary, as he gazed at the field. Mai impatiently called out to him. "My Harpies are waiting, so just go."

If he won, he would lose Mai forever. But if he let her win, he would lose himself. Laughter coming from Valon distracted him, and he fumed at the brown haired boy at the balcony.

'I can't believe Mai chose those clowns over me and de others. Whatever those guys did, I'm gonna undo it.'

Joey drew Scapegoat, then summoned Rocket Warrior in defence and laid a card face-down, ending his turn.

"Looks like your boyfriend's afraid to attack you," Valon called out to Mai as a taunt. "It's time to finish him off."

"Don't be a backseat duellist," she yelled back, and turned back to Joey. "It's time to win."

"I'll find a way to save us both," Joey muttered.

She drew, and used a Harpie Lady to attack Rocket Warrior. Then she used her other Harpie to attack Joey's life points again. Joey activated his face down, Scapegoat, to protect his life points. Unfortunately, Mai had a trap card that could use the situation to her advantage- Nightmare Tri-Mirror. It transformed the reflection of all Joey's monsters into more Harpie Ladies for her, so she got four more to make up for Joey's four Scapegoats.

"Hey, Mai can't have six monsters in play!" Tristan protested.

"The Seal of Orichalcos allows her to have up to ten monsters in play," Yami reminded.

One Scapegoat was destroyed on the field from Harpy Lady's attack. Mai set a card face down and ended her turn.

"There's nothing Joey can do-Mai's got him backed into a corner, and now he's stuck there," Tristan said.

"He has a point," Yugi said, though only Yami and, of course he didn't know, Efrona, could hear him. 'If Joey doesn't do something soon, Mai will win the duel."

Pharaoh agreed. "As long as the Seal of Orichalcos is on the field, Mai has the advantage."

Joey drew, and summoned Panther Warrior in attack mode. Then he sacrificed a Scapegoat to attack a Harpie Lady, but Mai activated her face down magic card, Harpy Lady Sparrow Formation. Her Harpies joined forces to repel Joey's attack.

"Mai didn't have that card in Battle City," Tristan said in surprise.

"Mai has a stronger deck than the last time we saw her," Yami agreed.

"I don't know what kind of spell those guys put on you," Joey told Mai. "But you have to wake up, or we'll both be in trouble."

She tossed her head. "There is no spell," she retorted. "No one's controlling me-I was sick of my life, so I chose to change it."

"None of you would understand. None of you have ever been an outsider like me, all alone," she muttered. "Duel Monsters was all I had, and after Battle City, I set out to be the best. I duelled against chump after chump to improve my duelling skills, needing to make a name for myself. But even though I won match after match, I didn't feel any stronger as a duellist. I felt worse, and I wasn't making a name for myself."

Her mind drifted into reminiscence, at a particularly painful time after a match.

_She was walking down a corridor, holding her trophy in one hand.__ Around the corner, she could hear the man she beat being congratulated by his friends on a good duel._

"_Who did he play again? Someone... Valentine?" _

_Her opponent said she came in something like eighth place at Duelist Kingdom-he almost beat her, too. His friend said Mai wasn't one of the famous ones, like Kaiba or Yugi. The woman said Joey Wheeler's always been her favorite-he's so cute! Those duelists could duel circles around him, but this Valentine girl's not in their league. Mai's opponent said they were right—now he felt kind of lame for losing to her__._

_Hearing this, Mai threw her trophy angrily to the ground. It shattered to pieces, and she ran off. The people talking about spotted the pieces. They all said "Oops" at the same time._

"Not long after that, the nightmares started," said Mai in the present.

"I dreamt of Marik banishing me into the Shadow Realm, trapping me in that hourglass that filled with sand, and suffocating me, as I called from friends that never came. Every night, it was the same dream. I was weak, and no one was there to help me. I was at the end of my rope.

"I was scared, and lonely, and my so-called friends were no where to be found." She went into her memories again.

"_I quit," she mumbled, and slumped against an alley wall. "I'm never going to get what I deserve anyway."_

_A motorcycle approached and stopped nearby. A brown haired boy wearing biking goggles, Valon, got down._

"_I know you-you're Mai Valentine," he said softly. He challenged her to a duel, which she agreed to and lost. At that, she slumped to the ground hopelessly, not even caring if the rain soaked her into pneumonia. Valon walked over to her._

"_You feel weak, and think you don't belong," he murmured._

_She began to cry silently, tears falling freely from her eyes. "I just want to be the best," she said, voice nearly cracking._

"_What you want," Valon said, "is true power. And I know how you can get it."_

_She looked up at him._

"_But the first thing you have to do is stop expecting your friends to rescue you. All they do is disappoint you. But I have the answer to all your problems." He held out a hand. "All you have to do is take my hand, and you'll be the most powerful duellist on earth…" he coaxed._

_She looked up at him, warily at first, but with nothing more to lose, she felt, she did the only thing she thought would save her. She took his hand._

'So you tried taking the easy path Mai?' Efrona thought. 'But what are the consequences of it in the end?'

"That was the smartest decision of my life," present day Mai said. "Now nothing can stop me."

'So you tried taking the easy path Mai?' Efrona thought. 'But what are the consequences of it in the end?Were you smart, or just out of faith?'

"Why didn't you ever tell us you were so unhappy?" Joey cried. "We could have helped you!"

"Save it," she snapped. "I don't need your help-all I need now is power." She continued on with the duel.

She played Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation. Since she had six Harpie Ladies on the field, she could destroy up to six of Joey's monsters. But he had only three monsters on the field—Mai could destroy them all.

"That's not all," Yami added worriedly. "The sum of the destroyed monsters' attack points would be subtracted from Joey's life points."

Joey's life points dropped to 200. He was only one attack away from losing his life points!

"Any last requests?" Mai sneered.

"Mai's still got 4000 life points!" Tristan exclaimed. "She hasn't lost even one, and Joey's down to 200. Not to mention that he hasn't got any monsters."

"If Joey doesn't think of something, he'll lose the duel!" Tea exclaimed in worry. She turned to Yami. "Is there anything Joey can do?"

"I have to find a way to break the Seal of Orichalcos," he said. "Unless Joey stops this, the Seal will consume him."

"But then Mai will lose her soul!" Tea cried.

'There must be a way for Joey to win the duel, and save Mai,' he thought.

"He has to pull himself together and stop panicking first," Efrona murmured aloud. "Then he'll think clearly."

She glanced at Valon. He liked her didn't he? It was there, behind the taunting and snide remarks, it shone in his eyes when he watched her beat up Joey. So would he really let her go through with the whole duel if Joey turned it around? Efrona was worried for Joey, but if he had faith he could do well, then chance would follow his emotions as it usually did, and there was more to worry about for Mai. Chance just seemed to favour whatever Joey needed. Unless he went up against someone with a stronger belief and reason to win.

"The kid stinks," Rafael said scathingly. Valon agreed. "He didn't even put up a fight."

"It's a waste," Rafael said. "Master Dartz wants the souls of strong duellists."

Joey was completely out of ideas. Mai was his friend, and he wouldn't risk losing her again. 'With only 200 life points' he thought 'there's no way I can win.'

"I quit," Joey announced grimly, and began to lay his hand over his duel disk, symbol of surrender, when Yami cried, "No!"

"Forfeiting isn't the answer Joey. If you give up on the duel, you give up on yourself and your friends," Yami said. "If you want to save Mai, you must keep fighting. Right now, Mai is driven by anger, jealousy, and hatred. You must remind her what dueling is truly about-trust, conviction, and heart."

"Don't say, Joey. Show her," Efrona said quietly.

The words struck deep into Joey's mind. The two were right. He had forgotten the Heart of the Cards. He looked up at Mai with new determination.

"This duel's still on," he announced. "And from now on, I'm giving it everything I've got." He drew card, and gazed at Mai fiercly.

"It's time to show ya what true duelling is all about."

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, and please review!


	10. Chapter 9

Finally updated!Sorry to the readers of this about taking so long-am steadily getting bigger workloads.It's dulling my spark. ;.;

I hope this came out okay, and thank you to **The Duelist's Heiress **for the review!

* * *

The situation looked bad. Mai had 4000 life points, while Joey only had 200. He had not scratched Mai's life points one bit.

"The good news is that it's Joey's move now," Tristan said. "He's got one more chance to turn this duel around." However, his current positive outlook was darkened when Tea mentioned the penalty of the game-at least one soul would be taken.

"Isn't there some way to end this duel without anyone getting hurt?" Yugi asked rhetorically. Only the Pharaoh and Efrona could hear though, and no one knew Efrona could.

"Yes, but it won't be easy," Yami replied. "The Seal of Orichalcos has limitations-it can only capture a soul when a duellist loses."

"I don't get it," Yugi said.

'Hopefully Joey does,' Yami thought in worry for his friend. Beside him, Efrona muttered something about, "rules…" but the rest of what she was going to say was lost, and he barely noticed she muttered at all, his concern for Joey driving everything else from his mind for the moment.

At first, the odds were heaped against Joey. But he didn't give up. He summoned a six star monster with the effect of not sacrificing for it, and used it to destroy one of Mai's Harpies. It wiped off 400 life points from her. A few of his friends cheered from the side lines at him managing to finally take a hit at Mai's life points.

"If Joey wins though," Tea reminded. "We'll lose Mai forever."

"I don't think Joey's trying to win," Yami said as he observed the brown eyed duellist swipe at Mai's points. "I think Joey has discovered the secret to ending the duel without either of them losing."

"There won't be a loser to this duel if something happens," Efrona said, and this time he caught what she said, and glanced at her. She was staring up at the brown haired duellist that was observing the duel on the upper floor balcony with his other associate.

During the duel, Mai recalled how she had ended up working in the same business as Valon, the brown haired duellist. How she had been taken to the leader, Dartz. He had given her a chance, a chance to get away from the loneliness and pain of the outside world, to become the best duellist in the world. So he told her he would grant her those if she surrendered her 'weak side', which she did. He then used the strange seal on his cloak, the one with the Orichalcos symbol and sent bolts of power to her forehead. Where he had pointed, the symbol appeared, glowing, and Mai scowled as hatred, jealousy and rage burned strongly in her. Thus she became an Orichalcos duellist for Dartz.

Shaking herself out of reminiscence, Mai went on to tell Joey that it was all over for him-she would attack and take the rest of his life points, along with his soul! Yet, Efrona had seen the musing look in her eyes, just the faintest hint of it-Mai was very good at keeping her angry façade. That was all that Mai's anger and hurtful comments were-a façade pasted in place by the darkness enhancer of the Orichalcos. The Orichalcos just increased any darkness or negative emotions inside a person, burning them in the very emotion emphasised.

For Mai, she lost faith in herself and her friends. The Orichalcos would just make her situation worse in the end, when she realised how cruel and dishonourable she was being to the people around her, her duel monsters, and herself. Efrona wondered at what Mai had suffered while so thoroughly depressed. Very quickly, Efrona's memories started to edge in, attempting to be thought of and seen through again. She shoved those memories away and surfaced from her thoughts. Joey was in trouble right then. Her memories would still be in her mind, but she could deal with them later.

Cries sounded from behind her, and Efrona turned around to see Rex, Weevil, and a boy her friends' age with long black hair in a ponytail, bright green eyes and a dice earring standing outside the security gates. The boy she had not seen before personally was Duke Devlin, she remembered, from him being beaten by Yugi at his own game, Dungeon Dice Monsters. Right then, he was calling to the gang from behind, asking what was going on. Further behind, on the side of the road, his expensive looking car was parked. Efrona mentally rolled her eyes-Weevil and Rex had taken a ride in luxury to Industrial Illusions.

The two younger boys were staring at the Seal of Orichalcos with expressions of horror and shock on their faces-they must've remembered having their souls taken by the same card symbol. Tea and Tristan were talking to Duke from inside the guard gates, telling them they were trapped inside, and he needed to find a way to get them out. With admirable speed, he ran off to do just that.

Throughout the exchange on the sidelines, Joey and Mai's duel had continued, and when Tea and Tristan paid attention to the duel again, neither duellist had lost points. Joey though, looked as if he was once again in a tight spot. Mai's side of the field had a Harpie Lady at rear defence, another Harpie Lady for spare, Harpie's Pet Dragon at the frontline, and two possibly dangerous face downs. Joey's side of the field had only one monster, and he was out of ideas.

He drew, set one card face down, set a monster in defence and switched his Fiend Megacyber to defence mode. They exchanged taunts from Mai's side, and defensive retorts from Joey's side before they kept duelling. Efrona wondered how long this would take until someone or something intervened-this whole duel from the start had Joey mostly scrambling for defensive to buy more time to come up with a way to save both himself and Mai. However, the duel didn't look like it would last much longer, as it finally came to where Mai had used a face down card that allowed her to take two spell cards- Harpy Lady Phoenix Formation and Sparrow Formation, and put them at the top of her deck. She had already set Sparrow Formation as a face down, and could now only draw Phoenix Formation. She activated it, and Joey's monster was destroyed –but his life points remained untouched!

Joey raised his head and chuckled.

"My monster was Neko Mane King, which has 0 attack points, so I lose nothing, and you've just wasted your best card! And, since it was destroyed by a magic card, Neko Mane King's effect ends your turn," he crowed with a huge smile.

"He has more lives than my cat!" Rex exclaimed.

Mai had started getting impatient with Joey's stalling tactics, and made it apparent in her next comments. Joey snapped back for Mai to worry about her own strategies. In his mind though, he knew perfectly well he was stalling. There had to be a card in his deck that could help him, but what?

"Come one, Heart of the Cards, show me some love-!" Joey murmured, looking at his deck. To his shock, his deck began to glow. For Yugi, a single card in his deck glowed-his Eye of Timaeus. He pulled it out, and suddenly the two boys' vision was surrounded by light.

Efrona let out a secret smirk at the spaced out looks from Yami and Joey, and their glowing card and deck. She could just imagine Kaiba's recently acquired Fang of Critius card glowing too, wherever he was. She observed them for a few seconds as they stood trance-like for that short period of time, while mentally watching Joey do the same thing as Yugi and the Pharaoh in their own dream a few days before. The two boys suddenly snapped back to the present. Joey glanced back at Yami, looking a little dazed.

'Hmmm, Joey is the third chosen one, with the dragon Hermos.' Efrona thought.

Rafael's Orichalcos shard, strung as a necklace, began to glow. Valon looked at the Pharaoh. 'The Pharaoh must be behind this.' He thought.

"Make your move!" Mai barked at Joey. Joey drew, and stared with shock at the card he had drawn. The shock made Efrona smile secretly; his shocked look was almost funny. The card he had drawn was the dragon which he had seen while he spaced off-Hermos. Yugi also guessed what Joey had just drawn.

Joey held the card up, talking to Mai with new hope in his voice. "You're about to meet my new friend, Hermos!" he shouted.

Valon did a double take at Joey. "No way-how did a hack like Wheeler get his hands on that card?" he asked incredulously.

"Just because he has it," Rafael pointed out, "doesn't mean he knows how to use it. That will be the true test of his power."

"I've found the secret to ending this duel and saving us both!" Joey exclaimed.

First, he played Monster Reborn to bring back the Fiend Megacyber. He then played Time Wizard and summoned the Claw of Hermos, combining them both. A brilliant, almost blinding light formed as the two fused, and then the glow suddenly vanished. What was the product of the fuse was…a giant hammer with wings and a clock face?!

Joey gaped at what he had made-what the heck was it?

Valon laughed. "Oh look-it's a croquet with wings! I'm so scared," he sniggered. Tristan smacked his forehead with his palm, and Tea wondered if he could split them back to a dragon and clock. Efrona shook her head. "Not without a diffusion card," she said. "He's stuck with it, but at least it's more powerful than it looks."

'Well, at least I think it is.'

Joey shook his head, rallying his confidence. "I don't care what it looks like-I trust my deck!" he declared. He ordered Fiend Megacyber to pick up the giant hammer and use it to attack, even though his monster's attack points were still lower than her Harpies. Mai, just to play it safe, activated her trap card, Harpie Sparrow Formation. However, Joey's monster pounded the hammer into the floor, at the centre of the playing field. A dark abyss opened up, and glowing numbers appeared over each of Mai's monsters, her dragon was 1, and her Harpie Ladies 3, 2 and 6. Everyone watched, bewildered, and from above, Valon laughed. Joey pleaded his monster and hammer to do something more, but as they did nothing, he ended his turn half-heartedly.

Mai drew certain that now she could finish the duel. However, before she could play, all of her monsters were sucked into the abyss formed from the hammer pound. Confused, she snapped at Joey, but he was just as clueless as her.

'Numbers…' Efrona thought. There was an idea at the edge of her mind, just beyond her incredulity over Hermos being turned into a hammer.

"Whatever Joey did must have destroyed Mai's monsters," Yugi said with a hopeful note in his voice.

"The hole is still there though. Mai's monsters might return," Yami answered.

"That hole is just a storing place. They'll come back…the numbers have to come in play somewhere…" Efrona trailed off her outside thinking at the glance she got from Yugi and Yami. She promptly shut up, hoping it didn't sound like a reply to an overheard conversation. However, she had realised what the numbers were for. 'Basic numbers…waiting for each turn to pass!'

Mai ended her turn with a face down. Joey, praying Mai would forgive him one day, attacked her with his monster, reducing her life points to 1400. He set one card down and ended his turn. An idea came into his mind that maybe, he could save them both if their life points came down to 0 at the same time.

Mai clutched at herself weakly as the image of her losing to Marik flashed into her mind again. 'I can't lose! I can't go back there!' She shivered as the image replayed in her head. 'I gave up everything to be a winner, and I'll never lose.' She drew card, and her dragon flew out of the abyss, the monster with the number one glowing over it before. The number was gone, and it was back, ready for action. That proved Efrona's basic theory. Yugi and his counterpart realised that the effect of Time Wizard had sent all Mai's monsters into the future, to be pulled back into play after the number of turns that had glowed on its head.

Mai was startled at its return, but her feeling of victory came back, and she rashly ordered it to attack Joey's monster. Bad choice.

"I wouldn't do that if I were her," Rafael muttered disapprovingly. Valon cried out in alarm, "Wait!" Too late though.

Joey activated his face-down, Skull Dice. The die rolled a 2, and the dragon's attack points were split in half. It was then promptly destroyed by Fiend Megacyber, and her life points dropped close to Joey's amount. She began to shiver, muttering to herself, as the vision of her loss to Marik flashed in her mind again. Efrona looked at her compassionately. She couldn't hold a grudge against the woman, since she had been in that state herself before, so she had no right to comment on Mai or pity her.

"She's lost it," Rafael said, shaking his head. Valon leapt down from the balcony, holding the Orichalcos shard in his ring.

"Took him long enough to realise. Was he going to let someone he loves suffer?" Efrona muttered darkly. She hadn't realised Yugi heard her just before an explosion sounded, knocking them all backwards. Smoke filed the area, obscuring everyone's vision.

When the smoke cleared, Valon was clutching an unconscious Mai in his arms, and Joey was lying on the ground, also knocked out. Rafael looked on with distaste, and he called out to Valon.

"Why did you do it? You betrayed Dartz and risked your soul to save some girl."

"She's not some girl!" Valon protested. Rafael sighed, and glanced at the knocked back group who had cheered for Joey.

"I'll make it up by taking the Pharaoh's soul," he promised, and lifted his stone shard. "Its power puts the Puzzle to shame." A blinding light flashed from the amulet-and the trio disappeared.

The security gates lifted straight after-Duke had managed to crack through the security system obviously. Tea and Tristan ran to Joey, who was beginning to wake. He stood up woozily, rubbing the back of his head. Suddenly he remembered Mai.

"Hey, where's Mai?" he asked. The rest of the gang looked away, and he got his answer.

"I was so close!" he snapped at himself. "I'll get her back!" Unnoticed by anyone, a Blue Eyes White Dragon jet landed outside of Industrial Illusions, as Joey distressed about losing Mai.

"Hey man, she turned her back on us!" Tristan said. "You've got to face facts-Mai wasn't just playing a friendly game of Duel Monsters, she was after your soul!"

Efrona looked at him. "You realise," she said. "Your old Mai is still in there, but she needs some help breaking through her own act now. Her act right now was just her negative emotions, but no one can live on just bad emotions." She looked outside. "Hey, is that Seto and Mokuba Kaiba?" she asked. 'So, the three chosen duellists group at last.'

They walked in, and to Seto Kaiba's annoyance, saw the gang, plus a new one, the new girl from Domino High. Duke ran in two seconds after.

"Whoa, it's a party!" he exclaimed lightly.

"It's a dweeb convention," Kaiba snorted. He dropped his smart comments to ask if they saw Pegasus.

"No, we were too late," the Pharaoh answered.

"Mai got to him first and took his soul with some Orichalcos thingy," Tristan added. Yami saw a flash of recognition enter Kaiba's face at the mention of the Orichalcos. "Have you had any experience with the Seal of Orichalcos card Kaiba?"

Mokuba answered for his brother. "Yeah, my brother just wiped the floor with someone who played it. The duellist pretended to be Pegasus and forced them to go to Duellist Kingdom to duel him."

"And then he ran away," Kaiba finished coldly. So we came here to find some answers. Whoever captured Pegasus is trying to take over my company, and that's unacceptable."

The Pharaoh remembered Pegasus in the video, saying that someone was after him. Then he said the card he gave Yugi was a special card that needed to be guarded with his life. He pulled the card out of his pocket, seeing the image of the key, and showed it to the others. "This might be a clue."

Duke looked at the picture. "There was a door upstairs that wouldn't unlock, even when I'd cracked the security system." Kaiba immediately demanded to be taken there, which Duke commented on as way too pushy. Tristan steamed as well.

"Who invited you?!"

The whole group headed for the elevator. Efrona looked back and saw Weevil and Rex looking angry about being ignored, but then sneaky looks came over their faces. She sighed as she turned back, and Yami noticed the reaction, but didn't see the cause. In his mind he remembered a few odd things. She had been very quiet most of the time, but didn't seem too surprised at the Orichalcos duellists' disappearing act. And when Mai had stated what drove her to go with Valon and see his master, she had a peculiar expression on her face as if…she understood. As if she recognised the pain itself. Also the fact she seemed to be aware of what Valon, the brown haired duellist was going to do according to her comment and glances to him.

He put those vague suspicions to the side, and turned to the current situation. Duke had led them to a door with a card reader. Yami scanned the key depicted card through it, and the door opened. Inside looked dark but very big. Tristan and Joey were suddenly very nervous, offering others to go first. Kaiba snorted contemptuously, followed by his little brother who also gave a miniature snort. The rest of the group followed in quickly.

The lights came on, revealing a huge room filled with life sized duel monster statues! All were toon monsters, no doubt Pegasus' favourite, and in the middle of the room, an enlarged version of Toon World. Kaiba looked at the statue in disgust.

"I hate toons," he grumbled.

Unnoticed by anyone, Rex and Weevil had crept inside. The two shared a look which said, "Let's find those rare cards he stashed."

A man appeared before them-of Pegasus himself. Everyone started in surprise before realising it was just a hologram. It greeted Yugi with the customary, "boy" at the end. His rather irritating, drawling manner had not stopped.

"Oh by the way, I did all the interior decorating by myself, and isn't it impressive?" he said, smirking. Tristan rolled his eyes.

"He needs to get over himself!" he muttered. Efrona shushed him and Tea told him to shut up.

"If you are hearing this, it can only mean that the people who are after my soul have captured me," he said, getting serious. "It all began when a mysterious man tried to buy out my company."

"The reason I got dragged into this mess was because someone tried to buy out my company too," Kaiba remembered.

"This individual-Dartz-possesses an ancient power stronger than anything I've ever seen. We're all in danger. Dartz plans to use my game to destroy civilization, and he must be stopped at all costs. The key to taking him down is somewhere in this room," Pegasus said. "Ever since my retirement began, I've furthered my studies of the ancient Egyptian origins of Duel Monsters. I've discovered that these creatures existed long before the pyramids were built!"

"In the city of Atlantis," Yami murmured.

"That's where Dartz comes in. He's trying to resurrect the most terrifying beast that ever roamed the earth, the great Leviathan, by draining the souls of man and beast in order to build up the strength of this monster."

The Pharaoh remembered the first Orichalcos user he duelled. The man had spoken of awakening a great beast from its ancient slumber. Beside him, Efrona muttered, "The Leviathan…the legend of the serpent beast." She looked up, and her face was clouded by uncertainty to everyone.

"You're our only hope!" Pegasus declared, and his eyes narrowed sneakily. "So I've created a card just for you and hidden it somewhere in this room. Think strategically-" a small smirk lit his face-"where one would find an extra card?"

Efrona blinked and looked around, half listening to the others' voices as her own mind whirred into action, going through ideas. Her gaze landed on a certain statue, one unrelated to Toons. She walked towards it. Evidently Yami had also thought of it, for he said in shock, "The Pot of Greed!"

Weevil and Rex ran towards the pot, but Efrona was already there, dipping her hand into the pot. She pulled out the card, feeling a jolt of hidden power race up her arm. 'It has potential to be one of the most powerful cards in existence,' she thought. 'In fact, it's power is similar to that of the aura which surrounded the chosen ones when they received it…the aura of the dragons.' Surfacing quickly from her brief thoughts, she held the card up to everyone-it was blank.

"It's worthless!" Kaiba sneered.

"Only you can save the duel monsters!" Pegasus cried to Yugi, before his hologram shattered and faded.

Joey groaned. "I can't believe this is happening!" he wailed. "Why would Mai join a plot to destroy the world? They brainwashed her or something!"

"Wake up," Kaiba snapped contemptuously. "This is just a hoax planned by Pegasus. There's no one travelling around stealing souls with a magic playing card. It's the same nonsense Pegasus pulled in Duellist Kingdom. Pegasus is just trying to distract me long enough to take over Kaiba Corp."

Even the Pharaoh finally couldn't stop himself from speaking out. "That's enough Kaiba. It's not always about you." He then pulled out the Eye of Timaeus, letting Kaiba see it. He had a vague suspicion Kaiba was the third dragon holder. The sight of it shocked Kaiba almost speechless.

"Where did you get that?!"

"Same place I got mine," Joey said, also showing his dragon, the Claw of Hermos. The Pharaoh looked at Kaiba with certainty in his eyes and his next words.

"I know that you have one of them too," he said, and Kaiba silently drew out his Fang of Critius. With the three dragons in the same presence, Efrona nodded to herself, calling out in her mind, 'Courageous beings are you going to show their destiny together now?' A collective roar came back to her before her link with the monster world and their creatures shut off again.

The three cards began to glow, a symbol of their unity. The Pharaoh pointed out the dragons' obvious powerful use when together, stating that they had to use the dragons together to defeat the ancient beast. In slight awe, the three chosen duellists raised their dragon cards.

* * *

There! I hope you all enjoyed, even if the duel between Mai and Joey was disliked by some. I'm not fond of it myself, but I need a trigger for...oops,nothing more said.

Review!


	11. Chapter 10

I'm back, with chapter ten! I'm trying to update more frequently after not updating for a long period last chapter. Life is so crammed and busy, it's almost hard to start typing after a day. What am I talking about, let the story continue! (Yes, I'm actually talking to myself. Weird.)

Thank you **Koragirl** and **The Duelist's Heiress** for reviews!

* * *

"My mind must be playing tricks on me," Kaiba hissed. No way could his card be glowing for no reason! But Joey confirmed they were, since his was as well.

"It feels as though the dragons are calling out to us," the Pharaoh said.

'That's because they are. Only to the chosen duellists, just like my dreams told me.' Efrona thought. Things that were meant to be played out sometimes showed in her dreams, though usually her dreams were about the past or just plain undecipherable.

Eventually, the glow faded, leaving the cards ordinary as ever, with the exception that they were powerful monsters. Everyone stayed in awed silence for a moment, and then Yami spoke quietly.

"I was told that fate had chosen three modern day warriors to release these legendary beasts." Kaiba snorted.

"Get real-I decide my own fate!" With those words ended any hope of an easy teamwork.

"Kaiba, be reasonable for once! We have to do this as a team," the Pharaoh growled, but the other's answer was still a stubborn negative. He stalked away, Mokuba following.

"Meh-we don't need Kaiba weighing us down anyway!" Joey declared angrily. "With Hermos, dose Hoodlums won't stand a chance against me!"

"Glad to see Joey's back to his old self," Tristan sighed. Efrona suddenly spotted Weevil and Rex on their hands and knees, behinds to them, looking as if they were searching for something. Despite her disapproval for them, as she knew about their spoiled, jealous attitudes, she was curious as to what they were doing.

"Hey-did you guys drop something?" she called out, momentarily distracting everyone. Weevil dropped his glasses, and then pretended to frantically search for them with Rex. Everyone turned their attention away again.

"So what should we do next?" Tea asked rhetorically. Joey slammed his fist into his palm.

"We should go find Dartz and his goon squad and rescue Mai!"

"The goon squad spilt without leaving an address, so that's not going to work," Tristan pointed out. Duke sighed at how chaotic life had suddenly become.

Yami suddenly remembered something-Professor Hawkins lived not too far away. He voiced the idea.

"Then our ride just left! Kaiba stormed out!" Efrona exclaimed, and they rushed outside, too late. Kaiba's jet shot off into the distance.

"Hey, no problem-we can take my car," Duke fixed. Their attention was diverted again when Weevil and Rex made their presence known again.

"Why did you two come anyway? No point," Efrona asked them pointedly.

As it turned out, the two boys ended up riding in the boot of Duke's car with the luggage. Tea sat in shotgun seat with a map in her hands as Tristan made unhelpful comments, to the point of irritating.

"Why would you want to go to ALASKA?!" Tea snapped after a particularly bad suggestion.

Joey had a far off look on his face. He was probably thinking about Mai, as Efrona glanced at him sympathetically. Mai didn't realise that what she was trying to get rid of was actually the person she held closest in her heart, according to other's descriptions and Joey's lively, praise filled stories about her.

'It's strange Mai, that had I not been given certain abilities, I would be just like you-someone who tries to survive in the unfriendly world.' Efrona glanced at her friends. 'Maybe not completely unfriendly. But such people around me are rare.' She stopped thinking any deeper as she felt her memories once again start stirring at the back of her mind. Now was not the time.

Yugi conversed worriedly with his yami through their mind link.

"Based on what Pegasus said, Dartz controls a force that's ten thousand years old-even older than you," he said, referring to the fact that the Pharaoh had been locked away for 5000 years.

The Orichalcos appears to be more powerful than any magic we've ever experienced," the Pharaoh added.

"It seems to be connected to Professor Hawkins' theory. I hope he can tell us what to do," Yugi finished.

* * *

Late that afternoon, Rebecca rode her horse Copernicus. She gazed up, startled, as a helicopter passed overhead and landed at home, where he was currently at.

What happened next went too fast for Rebecca to do anything. Men in black jumped out and stormed into the place, and then came out seconds later carrying her grandfather roughly.

"Wait, what?!" she cried, and galloped towards them. By then, the helicopter with the men and her grandpa had risen up and begun flying back the way it came. Rebecca spurred her horse in their direction, and looked back-to see her home explode, a huge fire engulfing nearly everything. She fell off her horse from the tremor of the earth that the explosion caused, and a duel monster card floated down beside her. She picked it up, and then looked up.

"GRANDPA!" she howled.

* * *

Duke's car pulled up at what appeared to be the remains of a house a few hours later, at night. Slowly everyone piled out, staring at the ruins in horror.

"Professor!" Joey shouted.

Someone stumbled before them-Rebecca. Her eyes were watering and very worried.

"My grandpa…my grandpa was taken!" she howled, and flung herself onto Yugi, weeping honestly.

"We'll find him, Rebecca," he promised.

They all gathered at the professor's motor home, one of the few things that didn't get damaged, since it was not at the explosion site. Tea made some tea, hoping it would soothe everyone's nerves, including her own, and especially a distraught Rebecca's.

"Who would kidnap the professor?" she asked, puzzled.

"Maybe it was something he had-people get overly cautious about secrets sometimes," Efrona suggested, mind beginning to grasp at a memory.

Yugi suddenly remembered the green stone he gave to the professor. It had belonged to the first Orichalcos duellist they duelled with.

"Do you still have the stone I gave to your grandpa?" he asked Rebecca. She produced the shard, worn as a necklace around her neck, hidden under her shirt. She took the necklace off and gave it to Yugi.

"Maybe that's what Dartz is after!" Tristan realised.

"Then we ought to go find this Dartz guy, break in and rescue Professor Hawkins!" Duke stated loudly.

"But how will we find him?" Rebecca protested.

"But the professor doesn't have the stone," Efrona said. "They might come back to look for it after realising he doesn't have it."

Tristan sighed, and attempted to lighten the mood. "Hey, if we're going to wait, I want something to eat."

"I'll cook," Joey said, leaping up. Tea pulled a face and nudged him aside. "Erk, I'm not eating anything you cook," she sniffed, and marched into the kitchen. Duke followed to help, trying to find something to do. In the bustling atmosphere, Yugi and Rebecca slipped away outside. Efrona, curious, followed silently, but stayed just indoors.

"Yugi-I'm scared," Rebecca whispered, looking lost. It made Yugi more determined to follow the ones who abducted her grandpa.

"We'll find your grandpa Rebecca," he assured her. Rebecca drew a deep breath and showed him the card that had dropped beside her during the destruction of her house.

A note had been attached to it from Rafael. He was to come to Death Valley alone, if he wanted to see Professor Hawkins again.

"How far is it to Death Valley?" he asked after reading it.

"An hour by car. I'll go with you, Yugi," she said, but he shook his head.

"No-I have to go alone. I've put you and your family in enough danger," he stated firmly.

"It's not you fault-!"

"It's me they want, and you'll be safer here," Yugi interrupted. "Please don't tell the others where I'm going-I don't want then to follow me," he said softly. Rebecca reluctantly nodded.

Efrona slipped away. He couldn't go alone. Who knew what could happen? As Rebecca came in, she passed Efrona. Their eyes met, and hers widened at seeing the older girl knew what Yugi was doing the next morning.

"I'll keep quiet-it's his wishes," Efrona nodded, and gave a tiny smile. In relief, Rebecca went away.

'But that doesn't mean no one will follow, Yugi. I'm not letting you walk into a possible trap.'

Yugi woke up just before dawn, and silently made his way outside. As he passed Rebecca, she turned and sat up; looking at him worriedly, but he shook his head.

"Don't worry. I'll be back," he smiled. She sank back down reluctantly.

Copernicus stood outside, saddled and ready. Yugi swung himself up, switching to the Pharaoh. It was a taller version of Yugi who rode away. He never noticed the shadow waiting around the corner, watching. The person waited for a few minutes, until Yugi was almost out of sight, before she swung onto her own horse.

'Animals must instinctively love me, like Belldandy.' She thought, setting her horse into a trot, then gallop, riding the mare bareback. The horse had come to her while she was humming out the back. It had been an experiment, but apparently animals responded to her voice, as the wild horse she rode to Death Valley demonstrated.

The galloping of the second horse was closer to the motor home than Copernicus had been. Joey turned over, half roused from his sleep. He blearily sat up and looked around, to see that Yugi was missing from where he had been sleeping before. Amber eyes landed on the small form of Rebecca Hawkins, sitting up on a chair.

"Where's Yug?"

"…" Rebecca muttered an explanation.

"WHAT?!"

The noise, muttering and shuffles were enough to wake everyone, and they crowded around Rebecca, hearing the story.

"How could you let him leave like that?" Joey yelled. Rebecca cringed against Tea, who put a comforting arm around the girl.

"Take it easy on her, Joey! You would have done the same thing!" Tea defended for the girl's sake.

"I would have talked him out of it!" Tristan retorted. Both boys sprinted outside the motor home-and stopped dead in their tracks.

Stumbling down unsteadily from a hill, Professor Hawkins nearly fell down flat onto the ground, if Joey hadn't raced forward to catch him. Rebecca sprinted over to her grandpa in relief. His next words brought worry back to everyone again.

"Where's Yugi?"

'As long as we have Timaeus, we'll be fine,' Yugi said to the Pharaoh through their mental link, as they rode on to Death Valley. However, the spirit pointed out the presence of the Orichalcos in their opponent's deck.

"But we have a belief in the Heart of the Cards," Yugi replied positively.

They galloped on, and in the distance, the figure of a man could be made more clearly.

* * *

Duke's car sped across the desert, spraying small stones as the wheels of his car struggled to cope with the speed. Joey and Tristan urged Duke on to an even faster pace.

"Hold on!" he yelled. He slammed his foot on the gas pedal as the car zoomed off a sloped stone.

It crashed onto the ground seconds later, eating more distance from its brief fly. Duke looked over his shoulder, asking, "Is everyone still in one piece?" Silence answered, and he gasped at seeing empty back seats.

"I told them to hang on," he sighed, and raised black binoculars to his eyes. Distant shouting reached him, and he glimpsed two figures racing to his car.

"Wait up Duke!" Joey and Tristan howled, panting.

* * *

Yami reared his horse to a stop at a nearby mesa, next to the one where a blonde duellist was standing, waiting. He recognised the man as one of the wielders of the Orichalcos.

"Let's do this," he said, and dismounting, he walked across a precarious looking bridge across an endless looking chasm.

Rafael smirked. "My associates may be satisfied by taking the soul of your friends," he said. "But I'm not."

Yami's eyes narrowed. "I have kept my part of the bargain, now you must release Professor Hawkins!" he demanded. The other chuckled darkly.

"He's already been set free, but since you came all this way, you might as well stay awhile."

He flung off his cloak, to reveal two axes he had hidden underneath. With amazing precision, he threw them and cut the ropes of the precarious bridge. It fell, leaving Yami with no way of escape from the mesa. His opponent's next words baffled him.

"I need to capture the soul of the Pharaoh myself, to save the world."

"Save the world?" Yami raised an eyebrow sceptically. "Don't you see that what you're doing is going to destroy the world?"

Rafael snorted. "You've been blind to what's going on. The world is a dark and lonely place to live, poisoned by mankind. All I'm trying to do is fix what's been ruined by people like you. And I'll do it by locking your spirit away forever. My name is Rafael,"- he activated his duel disk-"and I called you here to duel."

The two engaged in a stare down, two equally determined men ready to fight for their cause. The sun rose above the hill in a shining dawn, warming the landscape and illuminating the duellists. A strange sense of calm filled the tense atmosphere, and at last the Pharaoh responded.

"You have given me no choice. But in the end, righteousness will prevail." He activated his duel disk as well.

"That's just what I'm hoping for," Rafael replied.

"There's something different about this guy," Yugi murmured to the spirit in spectral form. Yami nodded.

"Rafael seems to have some hidden power."

Galloping sounds faintly edged the air, and Efrona reared her horse to a stop right beside Rex and Weevil, on the other side of the deep chasm that separated them from the duellists. Two extremely powerful spirits alerted her senses. She saw Yugi, and the Dark Magician and girl stood behind him in spectral forms for a moment, glaring at their master's opponent. 'The Pharaoh's spirit does demand a great deal of respect, for his courage and willpower.'

Then she looked at Rafael. She was near stupefied when she saw the outline of wings behind him, attached to a woman wearing strange, old style robes. She looked very much like an angel, and also looked like an ancient form of something she had seen before. 'Is that…no, it is a guardian, and not from the Heavens. I don't even know if it exists anymore, among the skies.' Her train of thought stopped when it clicked that the Pharaoh and Rafael had begun to duel.

"Damn, too late!"

"Too late for what?" Rex asked her, as she slid off her horse. Giving it a slight shove, the horse went galloping away, understanding her message-it could go and be free once more, she wouldn't hold it back any longer.

"I'm too late to warn Yugi and the Pharaoh-Rafael may be his equal in willpower, purpose, and bond with his cards. He also has a similar belief to Yugi's-the Heart of the Cards. They might well be a match for each other," Efrona replied to Rex's question.

'Why do I have a bad feeling in my stomach, that something will go horribly wrong?'

* * *

Yay! Now to finish the next chapter! Also, I have started getting bored with recording actual duels. I have never duelled myself, so I wouldn't know if there was a thrill from actually playing, which is why I might skip a few moves during duels. Very sorry to those who wanted to read complete, proper duels.

Please review!


	12. Chapter 11

This chapter isn't too bad. I found this episode quite sad at the beginning, and didn't know how to convey the emotion properly. I doubt I did, but at least I tried!

Thank you The Duelist's Heiress and Koragirl for their reviews! I'm glad to know you like this story.

* * *

Sighing, Tea checked on Professor Hawkins. He was resting peacefully on a bed, in deep slumber.

"He's got the right idea," she murmured.

She walked out of the separate room he slept in, and into the foyer like main room. Rebecca was busily working on her laptop. She gave a sudden gasp, and Tea rushed to peek over the younger girl's shoulder. "What?"

"There's a strange article here on a cruise ship that sunk twelve years ago. A boy saved himself by swimming to an island, where he spent three years there all alone. According to the article, he did nothing but practice Duel Monsters until he was rescued-and his name was Rafael! That's the guy who's duelling Yugi!" Rebecca cried, and Tea emitted her own gasp, in shock.

Rebecca leapt up, ready to run in the building heat outside if she had to, to reach Yugi, but Tea put a firm hand on her shoulder, stopping her from doing anything rash.

"Relax-Yugi can handle that guy," Tea murmured, sounding more confident than she currently felt.

* * *

"You could never understand the connection I have with my cards," Rafael told Yami, part way through their duel.

"You're mistaken-I also share that bond with my cards, trusting and respecting them," Yami replied.

Rafael picked up two certain cards and showed them to the Pharaoh, who took note that the cards looked quite worn. Efrona looked at the card, and sadness settled over her features. She didn't know much about the past of the ones who wielded the Orichalcos-but she knew they suffered many hardships, and each had something to rely on. These two cards looked like relics from the past-Rafael's past.

"I've played them hundreds of times," Rafael said. "Even though they're falling apart, I'll never replace them. I've sworn to protect them the same way they protected me. Twelve years ago, these monsters saved my life." These words brought a startled expression over the Pharaoh's face. Efrona winced. In a sense she knew what he meant. There was one certain card in her deck which she used very rarely because she treasured it so much, for several different reasons.

"When I was a kid, I was fooled into thinking that the world was a happy place, but then I discovered the truth-nothing's fair, and no one gets what they deserve," Rafael said quietly.

"That's very sad," Yami rejoined just as quietly.

"Huh. Life is sad, and the sooner you realizes it, the better off you'll be. I used to have everything a kid could ever want, until that one day..."

_A cruise ship moved across the ocean, outline a large shadow against a pleasant, starry night sky. It was an expensive looking cruise, large, with fine rooms and costly food.__ Amongst the passengers of the crew were a young boy Rafael and his family. They were having dinner on what seemed like a calm night outside._

_His little brown haired brother passed him a birthday present-a Guardian Eatos card._

"_Oh wow! Thanks little brother," Rafael breathed in excitement. A blonde haired girl about his little brother's age beamed at him also._

"_He had to go to eighteen stores before he found it!" she told him. "Don't forget to make a birthday wish!"_

"_I already have everything that I need," Rafael said, smiling affectionately at the girl and boy._

_Suddenly a tremor ran through the boat. Plates fell off tables from the force. Alarmed, young Rafael ran out onto the deck, the two younger children following and hugging him. All three gaped at the thing looming high over the ship, shocked frozen._

"We were headed straight for a tidal wave, and there was no turning back," present Rafael murmured.

_The ship tipped sharply, and screams rent the air as people fell overboard or were washed off. The force of the tidal wave loosened the hold of__ the two younger children on Rafael, and they were swept overboard. All three were screaming each others' names frantically. Then a second wave washed over the tossing deck, sweeping young Rafael off and in the opposite direction._

"That was the last time I saw my family."

_Young Rafael woke on the shores of a glimmering, clean beach. He blinked, looking upwards, and saw Guardian Eatos standing over him. As soon as she saw him awake, she disappeared. Rafael jumped up in shock, disbelieving that the vision was real, and ran all over the island, searching for people. But soon, he realised, he was alone. He was stranded on a deserted island._

_He came back to the beach he washed up on and collapsed to his knees, crying painfully. 'There's no one here. All I have are the clothes on my back and my duel monster cards.'_

"I knew I had two choices," present day Rafael said. "Sit around and feel sorry for myself, or toughen up and move on. If I wanted to survive, there was no time for weakness. I learned from a young age that the world was cold and lonely. I lost my childhood, but gained an undying trust for the only family I had-my three Guardian cards."

_Young Rafael had his three cards spread before him on the sand. A sudden strong gust of wind blew them into the ocean. Determined not to lose anything else, Rafael dove into the ocean and retrieved them. He created a fire and carefully dried them as if they were the most precious things in the world. To him, they were._

"Those cards kept me strong and sane, and I owed it to them to save them. We share a powerful bond. Guardian Eatos, Guardian Grarl, and Guardian Kay'est saw me through the hardest years of my life, and they continue to protect me."

"If you truly respect your cards," Yami began slowly, as he realised the bond was similar to his own. "Why do you use them for evil?"

"What you see as evil," Rafael replied, "I see as saving the planet from falling to pieces at the hands of people like you and your little friends. It's my destiny."

_Rafael ran up a hill top, overlooking the ocean. He sighed; wondering at the strange dish life had served him. Suddenly, a large island rose out of the ocean, on which a city was built on it. He gaped-how could he miss something that obvious? Quickly he jumped on the raft he built for fishing and rowed furiously towards the island, thinking he was saved._

_Before he could reach it, the island sank back into the sea, and his raft was overturned by the enormous waves it made. Young Rafael was tossed underwater, and opening his eyes a little, he glimpsed the city. Pale light shone around the city and him, and he heard a startling voice in his head._

"_We will meet again." Rafael then slipped into unconsciousness._

_When he awoke, he was floating on driftwood, and there was a ship coming to his rescue._

_Rafael's return to society made big news. He made headlines on the news, newspapers and magazines._

"But the world I came back to was anything but civilised," Rafael continued. "My island may have been lonely, but at least it was a peaceful place to live. Unlike the outside world, there was no one on that island who could walk out on me, like my family. But I have a new family now."

"How can you blame mankind for what happened to you?" The Pharaoh asked.

"People are evil. But it wasn't always this way. Once the world was perfect."

_Rafael stood on a pier again, looking out to the ocean, a few years after being rescued. Once again, he saw the mysterious island rise out of the ocean, and heard the strange voice in his head._

"_I told you we'd meet again. Are you ready to leave your old life behind?" the voice asked. Rafael nodded._

_A bridge of light formed between him and the island. Rafael wasted no time in striding down the path._

"_Together, we'll rebuild civilisation as it once was," the voice promised._

"I don't know what lies you were told," the Pharaoh told him, "but no good can come of his plan."

"You won't be around to see how his plan turns out," Rafael retorted.

Yami drew and played the magic card Five-Star Twilight, and since he had a five star monster on the field, he could summon the five Kuriboh brothers, cute-ish puffballs of different colours floating in a line.

"My cat's coughed up scarier hairballs," Rafael sneered.

"Looks can be deceiving. Now Kuriboh brothers, combine to form Kuribabylon!" Yami ordered. He then played Pump Up to double his monster's attack points, and attacked.

Rafael used the magic card Rescuer from the Grave, which emerged directly from said place, the graveyard. The Pharaoh protested at that-it was impossible to do that! Rafael replied that it activated directly in the graveyard. The card repelled Kuribabylon's attack, and changed it back into five Kuribohs.

Rafael then drew two cards and set two face downs. Afterwards he activated Purity of the Cemetery. This card inflicted 100 points of damage each turn for every monster in the Pharaoh's graveyard, and remained in play as long as there were no monsters in Rafael's graveyard.

"I have no intention of playing the Seal of Orichalcos card," Rafael stated, confusing everyone. "But your fate is sealed. You'll lose your soul by your own doing." He then attacked the Kuribohs with his Guardian Grarl.

However, Yami activated Kuribohs' star defence, which hid the Kuribohs and repelled Rafael's attack. The Kuribohs danced happily in their spots, like their own miniature victory dance.

"Humph. I'm not too worried, if your defence is a pack of gerbils," Rafael sneered.

* * *

"I'm still confused about something," Rebecca told Tea. "At the museum, you said there were two Yugis."

"There's really only one Yugi," Tea replied. "But he has another side to him, a tougher, more confident Yugi."

Rebecca digested it, and said, smiling, "I like the sweet and charming side then. I'll never forget the day we met. He was such a gentleman! I've never met anyone as nice as Yugi, but I suppose he needs his tougher side, too. That's why he always wins. When they work together, nothing can stop them."

"Yeah, they're probably beating the pants off that biker creep right now," Tea agreed, smiling.

* * *

The Pharaoh grimaced a bit, as he lost 300 life points for the three monsters in his graveyard, due to the effect of Purity of the Cemetery. His life points were down to 2700. He used Pot of Greed, hoping to draw good cards.

'We have a card in our deck that might turn things around but we need to draw it right now.' Yugi thought hopefully. The Pharaoh drew, and smiled.

"First, I activate the Kuriboh brothers' effect, merging them into Kuribabylon, and sacrifice it in order to summon a stronger monster-Dark Magician Girl!" The said duel monster appeared, waving her wand a little. Her stance was determined.

"She's too weak-my Guardian Grarl can still crush her," Rafael pointed out.

'Dark Magician Girl told us that the great beast will return, and that it must be stopped before it is fully restored. We promised to help her. We owe it to her, and the world.' Yami thought, and used his ultimate monster-Timaeus. He fused the powers of it and Dark Magician Girl, creating Dragon Knight.

"He always pulls the card he needs at the last second," Rex exclaimed enviously. "That never works for guys like us." Efrona shushed him, watching the duel attentively.

Maybe with Timaeus on the field, this battle would be victorious for the Pharaoh. However, the bad, sinking feeling in her gut and mind wouldn't leave-something was going to go wrong, her instinct for sensing trouble warned. And she normally trusted those instincts; they had saved her life numerous times in the past.

Yami attacked, discarding one card from his hand to lower Grarl's attack points. However, Rafael activated Self Tribute, which allowed him to save his monster, as long as he payed 1000 life points. Grarl returned to the field, and Rafael's life points decreased to 3000. Yami was beginning to believe Rafael when he said he would do anything to protect his monsters, a rare person to come across.

"Unlike you, I actually care about my cards," Rafael said icily. "You discard yours as soon as a better one comes along."

"I value all of my cards," the Pharaoh retorted fiercely.

"You're just as disrespectful as everyone else," Rafael shrugged. "Everyone in the world has darkness in their heart, but you're just afraid to admit it. Deep down, you're evil. Ten thousand years ago, people lived in paradise, until the ancient stone showed up. The stone of the Orichalcos."

He held up the shard which hung around his neck. "This stone unlocked the darkness hidden inside the hearts of mankind. Only a few were pure. A battle broke out between good and evil, and in the end, the evil side won."

"Whoever told you that lied," the Pharaoh said flatly. "The evil is the stone around your neck." Rafael laughed.

"The stone only shows the truth," he said.

"You're wrong," the Pharaoh half snarled.

"Your memories were erased, remember?" Rafael mocked. "How do you know you weren't an evil Pharaoh?"

The idea was like a slap on the face. "It can't be! I don't remember much about my days as Pharaoh, but I know I once saved mankind."

"The people you saved were evil, so you are too.

"Five thousand years before you ruled, the Orichalcos stone appeared, dividing the world into two sides-the pure of heart, and those ruled by darkness. The two sides faced off in the most devastating battle the world has ever seen. The battle between the two sides continues. We are here to continue the fight, and I will make sure my side wins. My side may be outnumbered, but we have two things others don't have-the power of the Orichalcos and the Great Leviathan. It can capture the souls of man and offer them to the most powerful beast that ever lived. Then the world will return to the way it was-a peaceful place with a worthy leader."

"You've been brainwashed!" the Pharaoh shouted, but Rafael dismissed it.

"Look around you. If things go on as they are, soon the entire planet will be desolate, like this desert. You did come back after five thousand years to save the world-by surrendering your soul to the great beast!"

Yami had enough of hearing the twisted plan, and voiced his impatience obviously.

"It isn't my plan," was the reply. "I'm carrying out the wishes of my master, who has told me all about your history as the king of Egypt, ruling as an evil dictator who used the power of the Shadow Realm to control his subjects."

"Your master lied!" Yami yelled furiously. Rafael only reminded him again that he had no memory of his past life, and couldn't back up his belief of his own goodness. Yami was not that easily inclined to think he was evil, of course. He was the one who had locked the Shadow Games away, and that had to prove he was good!

"Your heart is dark, and I'm about to prove it," Rafael declared. He drew two cards, set one face down and activated Exchange, allowing them to take one card from each other's hand. Both only had one card in hand, so they had to take whatever the other offered. Efrona's insides twisted anxiously-she was sure whatever bad that was going to happen, would happen soon.

Rafael received Necromancy from the Pharaoh, a magic card that allows a player to use a monster from the other's graveyard. He gave his card to the Pharaoh and walked away, chuckling to himself. The Pharaoh stared at the card in brief, paralysed, shock.

The Seal of Orichalcos.

Efrona gasped-the stone that Yugi had asked back from Rebecca, the Orichalcos shard, was glowing, which it did in contact with few things. In this situation, only one thing could do that-the Seal. She wanted to cry out, but her voice was stuck inside her throat like a wad of chewing gum she was gradually choking on. 'Oh no, gods no! This will end terribly in one way or another!'

Chuckling darkly, Rafael pointed out what Efrona had observed. "The stone around your neck is already beginning to reveal your dark side."

Yami looked down, and saw the stone glow an eerie green. Startled at its action, he grabbed it and clutched it in a fist.

"You don't have to activate the card if you don't want to," Rafael tossed casually. "But I have a feeling you will. It's your move."

Yugi appeared beside Yami in spectral form, childish eyes wide and serious. "No matter what happens, you can't use that card! It's evil"

Yami agreed fiercely, and drew. 500 points were deducted from his life points, because of Rafael's earlier magic card, bringing him to 2200. He sent Dragon Knight to attack Guardian Grarl, but Rafael flipped open a face-down, Crystal Seal. It encased Dragon Knight completely in ice, rendering it useless for attack.

"There's one card in your hand that will free the dragon," Rafael smirked. "Are you man enough to play it?"

Yugi warned him again not to play it, every movement Yugi made showed worry. Yami understood his partner's concern, but it may be the only way to free Dark Magician Girl. Torn, unable to do much, Yami set a monster in defence and ended his turn.

Rafael smirked-he could see that Yami wanted to use the Orichalcos, it was in his eyes. All he needed was a…little…push. He played Rod of Silence, raising his back-up monster's strength by 500, and it allowed him to summon Guardian Kay'est. He attacked the Pharaoh's defending monster with Grarl, the defence monster being Big Shield Gardna. It was promptly destroyed. He then used Guardian Kay'est to attack the Pharaoh directly, bringing him to 1200 life points. The Pharaoh collapsed to his knees from the power of the attack, weakened.

"The duel is done. Whatever happens, you'll lose on your next turn," Rafael smirked.

Yami drew, and his life points were sliced in half as Rafael's magic card again came into effect. He gritted his teeth-he was running out of options.

"There's only one way you can win, Pharaoh-play the card," Rafael said.

"There must be another way," Yugi said desperately.

Yami struggled, and managed to get back on his feet. "If I lose now, two worlds will be destroyed," he muttered. "I won't lose!"

He played Card of Sanctity and drew his cards. The Orichalcos shard around his neck glowed again, and unnoticed by him, Efrona winced as something darker emanated from it. _But why?_

'I'm out of options.' Yami thought. 'There's only one card in my hand that can free Dragon Knight so I can win the duel. I must play the Seal of Orichalcos!' He closed his eyes and held the card aloft to his side, ready to put in the duel disk. Weight suddenly held down his arm, and opening his eyes, he saw Yugi clinging to his arm, trying to stop its descent.

"You don't know what you're doing-the card is affecting your mind!" Yugi cried.

"Let go Yugi! We're going to lose the duel otherwise! This is my fight, so trust me, this is the only way," he said to Yugi, and managed to shake him off. Yugi was flung back a little, and watched in horror.

"No Pharaoh! Don't!" Efrona cried out in despair, suddenly finding her voice. She jerked forward, as if she could cross the chasm. In fact, at that moment she tried. To Rex and Weevil's astonishment, Efrona jumped high and seemingly into the chasm. Instead of falling, she flew across, towards the Pharaoh. Too late. The Pharaoh had slammed the Seal into his duel disk.

A scream of pain erupted from him as the Seal formed at his feet, as the power forced itself into his mind. Yugi dissolved from his spectral form and strangely just vanished, as the Seal widened to cover the whole duelling ground. Efrona shrieked a little as she veered away, and the gust of forceful wind it created threw her a little off balance. She was blown upwards and sideways onto a protruding rock in a nearby cliff face. Painfully slamming down there, she laid still, heart beating. She forced herself onto her feet and looked over the edge of the rock, onto the duel.

She heard Rafael speak. "Now, the Seal of Orichalcos will reveal whether the Pharaoh is good or evil." But she barely paid attention to that. Her eyes were fixed on the Pharaoh.

The Seal was glowing brightly on his forehead. And his expression was dark and angry as he gave a grim, rather cruel, smirk.

* * *

Stupid Yami! I hated him at that part of the series, though I felt sorry for him afterwards. But still felt that, 'this is how you pay for stupid mistakes' feeling. He's still one of my favourite characters, even then.

Please review and say what you think!


	13. Chapter 12

There, another update! I'm pretty happy with this one-managed to stick to the storyline for now, and ot ramble too much.  
For those who love duels, I am sorry if you dislike this chapter because of the continued on at the beginning.

Thank you to **The Duelist's Heiress** for the review!I honestly don't know where I would be without them...

Enjoy!

* * *

'Dear gods, please help us-what have you done Pharaoh?' Efrona thought desperately, perched on the rock she had been blown onto. She pulled her jacket sleeve up a little to look at the bracelet she was wearing. Sunlight glinted dully off the gold it was made from, outlining the intricate swirling design on the bracelet and emphasising the colour of the three sky blue gems inset into it.

'Well, you've given me Belldandy's memories-can you show me how this will end up?' she mentally asked it while staring at it for a second. Obviously there was no reply from the inanimate object, so she returned to watching the duel anxiously.

The Seal of Orichalcos encircled the two duellists, Raphael and the Pharaoh. But it was not the owner of the card who had played it-it was the supposed to be noble, wise Pharaoh! The Seal glowed on _his_ forehead; the red tints were in _his_ eyes.

Due to the Seal of Orichalcos, Dark Magician Girl and Dragon Knight had both received a power boost. The power boost was enough for Dragon Knight to shatter its ice encasement. To Yami's astonishment though, the dragon disappeared! It left Dark Magician Girl alone on the field, not nearly as powerful as when combined. Yami's eyes narrowed menacingly at Raphael.

"What have you done with my dragon?!" he demanded. Rafael gave a smirk.

"It's not what I've done, it's what you've done," he chuckled. "Timaeus fought against the Orichalcos. They don't mix. But your dark side has now been set free."

'What have I unleashed?' Yami thought to himself. Dark swirls of strange, forbidding but heady energy swept about him, fuelling his rage, his darkness. He growled, and fury contorted his face.

"You were a fool to hand me this card Rafael! Now when you lose, your soul will be lost for all eternity," he snarled.

He used a magic card, Hand Control, which allowed him to bring back four monsters from the graveyard as long as he could guess the name of a card in Rafael's hand. Since they did a card swap, Yami knew Raphael's card, and shouted it aloud. Big Shield Gardna, Berfomet, Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts, and Kuribabylon were resurrected. He sacrificed Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts and Berfomet to summon Dark Magician. He separated his Kuribabylon into five separate ones, and commanded them to absorb the power of the Orichalcos.

Dark Magician clutched his head in pain, but a second later looked up, wearing a cruel smirk, the symbol glowing on his head. The Kuriboh Brothers also had the Seal glowing on their heads, and hissed at Raphael. They joined to form a stronger Kuribabylon.

Yami smirked. "It's all thanks to the power of the Orichalcos," he said smugly.

"That's where you're wrong," Rafael replied. "The power comes from the darkness in you."

"Pharaoh, you made almost the same mistake as Mai, but without being driven. Did your pride run that high, that you would block your own partner out? Have you already been completely blinded?" Efrona whispered. No one heard her, perched isolated on the jutting rock. She twisted her hands tightly, her confidence in his win fading.

Yugi was indeed blocked, though Efrona hadn't known her words were so accurate. He was in a dark place, with the Seal of Orichalcos overhead, separating him from the Pharaoh. He looked on sadly, wondering how the Pharaoh could betray him. Not just him, everyone.

"I don't care where this power is from," Yami declared. "All that matters is that it's mine now."

Saying so, he attacked Guardian Grarl with Kuribabylon. It was destroyed, and reduced Rafael's life points to 1500. Since there was a monster in his graveyard, his magic card Purity of the Graveyard was destroyed. Yami then attacked with Dark Magician. Before the attack reached him, Rafael activated another magic card-Aid to the Doomed, which stopped any attacks if he discarded two cards.

From the crest of a hill, riding down rapidly to near Weevil and Rex, a car flew down. It stopped close by, and Duke, Joey and Tristan jumped out. "Yugi!" Joey yelled.

Yami turned and looked at them silently. It was like in slow motion for Joey, because he seemed to see that dooming Seal easing itself into his vision-_on his best friend's forehead._

"What's the Orichalcos thing doing on Yugi's forehead?" Joey wondered uneasily. He and the other two boys slid down to where Weevil and Rex were, near the edge of the chasm.

"You just missed the best part of the duel!" Rex said breathlessly. Angrily, Joey grabbed the collar of the boy closest to him-Weevil.

"Why the heck does my best buddy have that freaky thing on his head?" he demanded. Tristan tried to calm him down, pulling him off Weevil.

"Yugi got the Seal of Orichalcos from Raphael, and he activated it," Rex explained. Joey frowned.

"Yugi wouldn't do that. He knows the card is evil," Joey said.

The swirl of dark power had not stopped whirling around Yami. His eyes were almost crueller than when he first activated the Seal.

"How does it feel to know that all this time you've been hiding your true self?" Rafael said. "You derived your power from darkness, and always have."

Yami just gave a smirk. "Are you jealous because the Seal of Orichalcos is on my side of the field now, and that your soul is on the line? Maybe you should have thought twice before giving me the card," he mocked.

Rafael shrugged carelessly. "I'm not worried. I have complete trust in my monsters."

He drew two cards, and then activated Monster Rebirth, reviving Guardian Grarl. Yami snorted.

"I've destroyed that monster once and I'll do it again," he dismissed. Rafael set a card face down and used Swords of Revealing Light.

"Your swords mean nothing. I sacrifice Big Shield Gardna to summon Catapult Turtle!" Yami made his move. "I'll use it's affect to catapult a monster directly at your life points."

Rafael flipped a trap card-Limit Tribute. Yami could only sacrifice one monster per turn. Since he already did that to summon Catapult Turtle, he had no choice but to finish his turn.

Rafael drew two cards and played Nightmare Binding, weakening Kuribabylon and adding the stolen points to his life points. That stopped Kuribabylon from being sacrificed. Yami wasn't perturbed at all.

"With the power of the Orichalcos behind me, I can't be stopped," he said carelessly. He drew, and then glanced at the field. He called Dark Magician useless, and commanded him to get on the catapult. He obeyed his master, and damaged Rafael's life points. Once in the graveyard, Dark Magician Girl's life points raised.

"How could you Pharaoh? You valued Dark Magician-you never called a card useless. It doesn't feel like you're respecting your cards anymore, and that was one of your trade marks in all duels," Efrona muttered. An idea was beginning to form in her mind, looking between her glimmering bracelet and the Seal on the field. His head was so clouded, but if he was clear minded for even a second, would that help him? Was that even possible now?

"That doesn't sound like the Yugi I know. Come on buddy, snap out of it!" Joey muttered his thinking along the same lines as Efrona in the sense Yugi was behaving abnormally.

Rafael drew two cards, set one face down, and ended his turn.

Yami drew with the smirk still in place. "I only have to destroy one card and the duel is done. I choose…" his eyes levelled on the Dark Magician Girl. "You."

Yugi pounded helplessly on the barrier which kept him away from his partner. "No don't do it! With the Seal of Orichalcos in play, the monsters on the field are real! Don't sacrifice the Dark Magician Girl," he pleaded, in vain. No one could hear him.

Dark Magician Girl looked back at her master with a rather shocked expression, mixed with disinclination.

"Go on," Yami said, ignoring the look. She reluctantly climbed onto the catapult, where she was launched at Rafael. At the last second, Rafael flipped a face down-Shrink, cutting Dark Magician Girl's attack points in half. The attack did some damage though-Rafael was on his last 100 life points.

"You won't escape the Seal! Swords of Revealing Light has expired, so once I sacrifice one more monster, your spirit will be absorbed by the Seal and trap you forever," Yami all but snarled, infuriated his attack didn't finish off the duel.

"Yugi's got this duel in the bag," Duke said in relief.

"Nice duelling," Tristan agreed. Joey disagreed.

"Yugi's brainwashed, sacrificing his monsters right and left and talking about power. That's not Yugi at all! That Seal of Orichalcos is messing with his head! Just like it did to Mai," he muttered.

Tears welled in Yugi's eyes. "How could he do this? I warned him!"

Rafael laughed. "I knew the Seal would reveal the truth. This is you: wicked, greedy, and full of hate. The power of the Orichalcos reveals all, and just as I expected, you are evil," he said.

In the winds, a faint cry of desperation echoed, though no one really took notice. However, half a second later, Joey muttered, "Huh?"

Efrona tapped silently at the barrier, doing her best not to look down at the seemingly bottomless chasm. If she got dizzy, it wouldn't help her thinking. She placed a hand firmly on the Seal barrier, wincing as it shocked her, but gritted her teeth. Slowly, her hand began to sink through, her hand, wrist and bracelet glowing brightly as she channelled power to those points. Gradually, she inched her hand forward to the Pharaoh's shoulder.

"Look around the field at what you've done to your monsters. Once they were pure, but now they're evil shadow creatures," Rafael urged. Yami looked around, blinking as if the scene was suddenly new. The anger, the pitiless, glowing red eyes and the Seal glowing on each of his remaining monster's foreheads.

"Did I do this?" he wondered, as his head cleared a little from the control of the Orichalcos. He turned on Rafael angrily. "You deceived me!"

"You chose to play the Seal of Orichalcos, even at the cost of losing Timaeus. Your lust for power destroyed a valuable monster," Rafael replied coolly.

Rafael drew cards, and then played Celestial Sword and Guardian Eatos. The sky suddenly filled with light and flashed with lightning as Eatos descended from the heavens.

"This is the monster I've been sensing all along!" Yami gasped. Eatos picked up the Celestial Sword, which had fallen beside her, thus activating its effect. Yami gasped again when he felt his arm move against his will, pulling out cards from his graveyard. Each monster's attack points were absorbed by Eatos. All gazed at him with hints of anger and sadness.

"You did this to your monsters, by selfishly sacrificing them, and letting your rage take over. Look into the eyes of your monsters, Pharaoh!" Rafael pushed at it. Yami glanced upwards, meeting the glare of his monsters. Once loyal, because he had been disloyal to them, they would help this now worthier man, even if it went against the grain. Rafael.

A hand touched his shoulder lightly, unknown to him, as he was preoccupied. The glowing hand mentally began loosening the bond of the Orichalcos on his mind and soul, and Yami felt the strangest sensation bolt through his mind, as if it was chasing away clouds. Suddenly, he saw the duel scene in full clarity.

"Please forgive me!" Yami cried, spreading his hands helplessly, too late. They vanished, absorbed by Eatos' sword. She sent a devastating attack, destroying all of Yami's monsters, and his life points. Everyone gasped as the Seal shrank around Yami.

"You sealed your own fate when you played that card," Rafael said, walking up to him. "Now your life force will awaken the Great Beast. Wait-how did you get here, girl?" he suddenly snarled. Yami turned, suddenly feeling the hand on his shoulder, and to his shock, saw Efrona standing behind him, one hand penetrating the Seal and touching his shoulder. But how?

Yugi desperately looked at himself and the Seal. "I can't let him be taken!" he hissed, and looked down at his Millennium Puzzle. But the Puzzle had no effect on the Orichalcos.

The Seal above him suddenly crackled, giving off a bust of energy, then flaring. Something was wrong with it. Yugi blinked, and then seized his Puzzle. "Hopefully it'll work," he muttered, and smashed it against the barrier, breaking the Seal. He jumped at his darker half, flinging both him and Efrona out of the Seal. Efrona skidded back a little, while Yami whipped around.

"Yugi? What are you _doing_?" he cried. Yugi gave him a sad smile.

"The Seal only needs one of us," he replied. "So I'm letting it take me instead."

"Yugi! No!" Yami shouted, lunging forward. The Seal burst in a blinding flash of light, and then disappeared. Where it had been, Yugi's unconscious body lay.

Rafael knelt and took the Seal of Orichalcos card from the fallen boy's deck, and took the Orichalcos shard hanging around the neck. A helicopter approached, a ladder flapping down. Rafael shouldered Yugi's body and clutched the ladder, climbing up a little.

"Hey, get back here!" Joey cried, enraged. For answer, Yugi's body fell down and they struggled to catch it and not harm the body. Efrona flew across quickly to them, anxiously looking from Rafael to Yugi's limp form.

"You can keep him-I already have everything that I need," Rafael said. The helicopter flew off. Unnoticed by anyone, Weevil and Rex had disappeared from the sad scene.

The three remaining boys tried to wake Yugi up, shaking him. Efrona shoved them. "Check if he's still breathing," she murmured, doing it herself. She grabbed his wrist, feeling a steady heart beat. She held a hand close to his slightly instinctive open mouth-he was breathing. His chest was rising and falling, not evenly, but not badly either.

"He's fine physically-we have to wait for him to wake up," she said, having done the checks quickly and a bit shakily, but with the surety of one experienced.

After a while, the eyes opened, and the body began to struggle to his feet.

"Yugi! I knew you would outsmart that old goon," Joey crowed in relief. "How'd ya do it?"

"No," the voice replied. It broke with emotion, with grief. 'Wait that was very deep, even for a strained voice, if you're talking about Yugi…' Efrona gasped sharply at her thought, and stared hard at the person with his back to his friends. Shoulders wider, height not quite usual for the under height boy that went to Domino High…

"I didn't outsmart Rafael. Rafael succeeded. Yugi's gone," the voice broke worse than last time.

The bracelet around Efrona's wrist flashed under her coat sleeve, and a vision came to her, the after effects of trying to break through the Orichalcos Seal. A room with walls covered in tiles, most which had carvings of people. On one…Yugi! Sinister laughter echoed in her mind as she ripped herself away from the vision, forcing herself not to space out.

"I don't get it," Joey said. "How could you be talking to us if Rafael took your soul?"

"Joey, maybe…" Efrona didn't want to finish-the person with his back to them looked torn and demoralised enough without her cementing it in stone. She needn't-their friend did it for her.

"Not mine," he whispered, almost inaudible to them. "Yugi's." He fell to his knees, sobbing. His screams echoed between the rock faces of cliffs.

"Come back Yugi! It should have been me, not him! It's not fair! Yugi!"

* * *

Tea and Rebecca drifted restlessly around the front of the motor home, simply waiting for the guys to come back. They needed reassurance the Yugi was okay.

Duke's car drove up to the motor home, the Pharaoh riding on Rebecca's horse in a trot. His head was bowed, but Tea and Rebecca didn't sense the depressive air at first.

"Yugi!" Tea cried in relief. Rebecca ran forward, about to fling herself into Yugi in e fierce hug, when 'Yugi' lifted his head. She stopped dead in her tracks. Why did Yugi seem…different?

"Is everyone okay?" Tea asked.

"Not really," Joey mumbled, as everyone clambered out. "We've…got a problem."

"He didn't win," Tristan muttered.

"He's gone," Duke finished. Efrona nodded and looked away.

"But if Yugi lost the duel, then those creeps would have taken Yugi's soul," Tea said in confusion. "If he lost, how come he's…?" Realisation flashed across her face, and fear flickered in her eyes.

Rebecca tried to peer into 'Yugi's' eyes. "Yugi, talk to me," she pleaded. Said person hung his head.

"It's true-they have Yugi," he replied dully. The scene where Yugi had pushed him out of the Seal, sacrificing himself instead, kept replaying in his head. It couldn't be-Yugi couldn't have gone. He should be inside the Puzzle. But he wasn't. His soul was trapped by the Seal.

"This is all my fault," he muttered. "I'm the one that unleashed that magic card that took Yugi away."

Rebecca stepped away, shocked. "How could you? If you were a great Pharaoh, you wouldn't have done that to Yugi!" she cried. She lunged at the Pharaoh, startling him, but she needed something to support her. In fury and sadness, she pounded into his chest, sobbing. "It should have been you, not Yugi!"

Tea took her to her own side, and Rebecca clung to Tea, still crying. Tea tried her best to soothe Rebecca, but how could she, when she herself was still trying to accept the fact that Yugi was gone? "No Rebecca…" she murmured helplessly.

"Rebecca is right," Yami said in his frightening toneless voice. It even frightened Efrona, at how hopeless he sounded. "I let everyone down-especially Yugi. He warned me not to play the Seal. But I let my rage take control, and Yugi paid for my mistake." His voice broke on the last sentence.

Joey gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to punch a certain lingering spirit, now flesh and blood. That stupid Seal card had his friend, so now they needed to rescue him! But the Pharaoh didn't seem to be in any shape to think up rescue ideas. "If we're going to rescue Yugi," Joey barked at Yami, "We have to move ahead, not look back. Pull yourself together. What we have to do now is find out who Dartz is, and where he keeps all his souls."

"That's what I've been suggesting since day one!" Duke exclaimed impatiently. Tristan put him in a stranglehold, and told him to shut up. The two promptly began to wrestle with their arms.

"Let go of Duke, Tristan," Yami sighed. "This happened because I couldn't control my anger, and if we keep fighting amongst ourselves, then the Orichalcos will destroy us."

Joey began a checklist of the facts they knew. "Okay, so these guys want to rule the world. We've dealt with that before," he said.

"But it's different," Yami said, thinking cautiously back to what Rafael said earlier before he played…that card. About Rafael saying he was also fighting for good.

"These guys aren't just talking about wiping out all life on earth, they're doing it," Tristan added.

"But we know how to stop em," Joey said. "We have to go straight to the source and destroy that weapon of theirs."

"Do you mean that monster eating eye in the sky? The eye of the Great Beast?" Tea asked.

"Unfortunately, it's after more than just monsters. It's using human souls to power itself up!" Tristan said.

"Right now, that thing's got Yug," Joey said. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going ta take action!" Tea, being the logic, spoke up.

"We can't fight it by ourselves! We need help."

"But those guys burned down grandpa's lab and destroyed all of his research. Without evidence, no one will believe our story," Rebecca pointed out.

"We have proof in the underwater ruins," Tea countered. However, Rebecca revealed something disheartening-the ruins weren't there anymore.

"Don't give up," A voice said weakly. Slowly, Professor Hawkins stumbled into the room, leaning on a cane for support. "I can help find the information you need."

"Have you discovered anything more of these people?" Yami asked, trying, and almost completely failing, to rouse himself.

"There's a good chance these men are descendants from Atlantis, an ancient city that disappeared into the sea thousands of years ago without a trace," the professor explained.

"So this is really all about Atlantis?" Efrona muttered.

"If that's so, why would these people want to destroy what's left of their ancestors' city?" Duke asked. The professor speculated it, and concluded that their enemy was hiding something, a dark secret. After all, the history discovered from the ruins of Atlantis was not a pleasant one. He elaborated, noticing the questioning expressions he received.

"Thousands of years ago, Atlantis was home to the most advanced civilization the world had ever known. Everyone lived in peace, until one day a dreadful creature was called forth from the depths of the earth by an evil king," he began. Yami visibly started in horror and dread, remembering Rafael's accusation of him being an evil king who destroyed Egypt.

"Peace, Pharaoh-your legend didn't say anything about this, not even in Battle City," Efrona said quietly as she listened attentively to Professor Hawkins. She cast a cautious glance at him, knowing whatever anyone said, the Pharaoh could not forgive himself, unless he asked it from the sufferer in person. He probably hadn't even heard her words, with the way he looked. She knew that feeling, had experienced it in her quickly ended childhood, except she had no one to beg forgiveness from. Solace came in another bizarre form for her.

"The king drew his strength from a mysterious stone, and the stone drew its strength from another world," Professor Hawkins said.

"Is that the stone they wear around their necks?" Joey asked, but the professor shook his head helplessly.

"I'm not sure. That's all I was able to translate," he said.

Joey nearly threw a fit. "Those guys are hiding something about their mega-monsters! Dose punks!" he half raged, though he couldn't really set forth his usual energy in it-Yugi's lack of essence in the world right now dampened his spirit.

"There was probably something in those ruins about how to destroy the monster," Duke suggested. Professor Hawkins suddenly remembered something.

"Even though the ruins were destroyed, there are copies of the inscriptions at a museum in Florida, where I was doing research," he said. Tea caught on to his idea, and hope filtered into her voice.

"So all we have to do is go there and translate the rest!" The professor nodded.

Joey turned to the Pharaoh, hoping to lift him out of that unnerving depression that was etched on his face. "Well den, let's head to the sunshine state and find out the secret to these guys and saving Yugi!"

"Yeah!" Tristan agreed. Duke, being the present realist and slight pessimist, pointed out a factor.

"But we have a problem. How are we going to get there?"

* * *

Kaiba could have groaned in frustration, had he not had more self control. He had been getting regular updates from his employees about his business. Ever since the monster sightings began, his stock had been plummeting, and nearly half of his company had been bought up by some unknown investor. He suspected who it was, but merely told his employee to trace the transactions. He was sure it was Pegasus. With a slightly noticeable exhale, he hung up the phone.

"I'm not so sure it's Pegasus," Mokuba said thoughtfully. "It could have been Alister. He does blame KaibaCorp for what happened to his little brother. If I were Alister, I would blame this company too. Besides, Pegasus had his soul captured, so he can't be behind it."

"I don't know about that nonsense about Pegasus," his brother replied. "But you have a good point about Alister."

Just then, the visual phone went off. Surprisingly for the Kaiba brothers, it was from a Mr Wheeler. "What does that mutt want now?" Kaiba muttered. He consented to accept the call though. The screen was filled with a picture…of an enlarged eye.

"Kaiba actually took our call!" Joey's voice said, as his eye tilted weirdly.

"It works better if you step back from the web cam," Mokuba said, and Joey backed away. Around him were his friends, clustered.

"Hey Kaiba, we found some clues about dose biker punks," Joey said. "But we ain't giving them up that easily. If you give us a lift to Florida, we'll fill you in along the way. Tons happened, with those creeps defeating Yugi and taking his soul-!" his voice was suddenly muffled as a hand clamped over his mouth, and several groans were heard.

"What do you mean took Yugi's soul?" Mokuba asked. Joey wrestled Tristan off him, and waved his hands with a sheepish expression.

"Forget what I just said!" he stammered. Tristan came in.

"It doesn't matter, Kaiba doesn't believe in this magic stuff anyway."

Kaiba wasn't paying attention to the exchange though. The words, "defeating Yugi" were all that mattered to him. He narrowed his eyes at the image of 'Yugi', his shoulders held less proudly then usual. His expression was downright depressed. Angrily, Kaiba slammed his fist onto his desk.

"Yugi lost?! Yugi gave his Duel Monsters championship crown to some nobody? Nobody deserves that title but me!" he raged.

"Hold on-"Yami tried to interrupt, but no one could stop the fury of Seto Kaiba.

"Save it, Yugi. You're a disgrace to the game," he snarled, and cut the call.

"Big brother? Are you okay?" Mokuba asked timidly.

"I'm fine. Now I just have one more reason to hunt down and destroy those thugs," Kaiba said.

* * *

'Now what?' Yami wondered.

Joey and Tristan were furious at Kaiba for cutting them off so rudely. However, they put their anger aside for the moment. Getting to Florida was more important.

"Professor, it's probably better if you stay here while we get the next flight," Joey said seriously. Rebecca agreed whole heartedly.

"Yeah-travelling around the country's not the best thing for grandpa right now," she said. Duke would stay behind to take care of the professor and see no harm came to him.

"I'll book your flights, and you can take a train to the airport," she said, and breezed back inside to her laptop.

'I just hope we can save Yugi before it's too late,' she thought painfully.

* * *

Please review!


	14. Chapter 13

Here's chapter thriteen! I'm so happy that this story has gone on so long!

Thank you to **The Duelist's Heiress** and **Koragirl** for the reviews! I wouldn't have gotten this far without them.

Enjoy!

* * *

Rebecca, Duke and her grandfather stood on the train platform with the rest of the gang, hurriedly bidding farewell before their train to Florida came.

"Are you sure you want to stay here?" Tea asked Duke. "I could stay if you want."

"Nah," he said. "I'll stick with Professor Hawkins in case those biker guys come back."

"Keep an eye on Rebecca too," Tristan added lightly. All of them murmured goodbyes, except for one. Yami.

The Pharaoh was just staring miserably at the ground, still deep in his depression. Tea glanced at him in sympathy, but wasn't quite certain how to lift the despair from him. She still had a hard time getting her head around the fact he had done such a big stuff up, by playing the Orichalcos. She sighed, and along with everyone else, grabbed their luggage and got ready to board the just arrived express train.

Duke waved as the train sped away, and Tristan and Joey waved back. They at least had their hopes up high that Yugi could be rescued; otherwise they wouldn't act so casual. With a slight grin, they loudly announced they were going to look for the dining cart. Tea couldn't help but mentally grumble about how they could think of their stomachs anytime. Completely the opposite of the Pharaoh's state.

"I'll keep them from wrecking too much havoc," Efrona offered quietly, and followed the two eager boys away. They soon came back and settled into their seats, loaded with goodies to eat. Efrona didn't come with them.

"Hey, I thought Efrona went with you guys," Tea said.

"Yeah, she said she wanted to walk around the train carriages for awhile," Joey replied, mouth stuffed with food.

"Something about taking fresh air-it's a bit stuffy for her inside right now," Tristan added, shrugging.

They said no more, but munched on into their food. Tea sat back, and gradually, the silence from occupant of the seat next to her unnerved and worried her. The Pharaoh had not said anything. 'He's barely said a word all day,' she thought. He was never one that was too talkative, but the almost complete silence from him was like a thick cloud that had fallen from the sky-a heavy cloud that was yet to rain. Tea understood why Efrona said the train carriage was stuffy.

Tea sneezed. No response.

"Hey, check out the view-it's really different from Domino," she chirped in a light tone, trying to get him out of his numb daze. No response.

"I heard that Florida's beaches are great," she sighed dreamily. "I can't believe I forgot my bathing suit."

Still no response. She bit her lip.

'He must really miss Yugi,' she thought. 'It must be like a part of himself is missing. The lighter, carefree side.' Memories of her friendship with _Yugi_ assaulted her, and made her heart twinge. 'I miss him too.'

"Yami," she said hesitantly. "Please try to cheer up a little. We will get Yugi back, but meanwhile, you can't just sit and mope."

Without looking at anybody, or even raising his head, Yami stood up from his seat. He apologised and quietly excused himself, walking out the carriage door. Tea hesitated, and was about to stand herself, but Tristan shook his head.

"I think he needs to be alone for awhile," he said.

"He's alone," Joey agreed. "That's the problem. But he'll be all right soon, because we'll rescue Yugi!"

"Yeah!" Tea said, trying to get her spirit up.

* * *

The Pharaoh stood by himself, in the compartment between the train cars, again replaying what had happened, what he had done. 'How could I be so selfish?' he asked himself despairingly. 'I gave in to the darkness inside my heart, and Yugi paid the price.'

He winced as he remembered the angry glares of the monsters he had thrown away, just before they helped Rafael beat him. How he had begged for forgiveness, too late, and Yugi had pushed him out of the circle to save his soul. But Yugi had sacrificed his own soul to save him. With a pained grunt, he slammed his fist into the train wall, and slid pathetically onto the train floor, resting his head on his knee. "I've lost Yugi forever."

The door opposite him slid open, and a girl drifted through slowly, closing it behind her. She stopped short at the sight of him, and bowed her head slightly. Efrona.

"Sorry," she said softly, and glanced at the door he was currently leaning against. She was about to back away, but his words stopped her.

"You…you broke through the Seal. And my head cleared when something brushed my shoulder. Your hand. How?"

The Pharaoh remembered it now. That jolt through his mind, suddenly breaking through the mist of darkness in his head, came from a touch on his shoulder his was almost unaware of, and had not thought about because of his present depression. Now catching Efrona alone, he remembered, and could ask about it; though he wasn't sure he cared a lot.

Efrona's eyes widened a little. She thought he would have forgotten. She wanted to forget herself, but it ate at her guiltily. No matter how much the Pharaoh blamed himself, Efrona felt that Yugi's loss was partly her fault. The Pharaoh's conscience was already beginning to stir before she did anything, she was sure. It was her own action that had made it possible for Yugi to break through the Orichalcos barrier and give his soul instead of letting the Orichalcos take the Pharaoh's. But-and she shuddered at this as well-if she let the Pharaoh's soul be taken, what would happen to the world? It was Yugi, an innocent person with a heart of gold, and also the Pharaoh's guide in some ways, or the world. Efrona didn't know how to feel about the accidental consequences of what she did.

"It's not completely your fault, you know," Efrona finally replied to the Pharaoh. He looked at her with weary confusion. "It's not completely your fault that Yugi is gone. I guess that was the consequence of my impulsive actions."

She had not even roused him. He merely shook his head, and bowed his head again.

Silence passed, and Efrona finally decided to speak.

"I broke through the Seal because of this," she said, and pulled her coat sleeve up, revealing an antique looking bracelet of dull gold with elaborate patterning, and studded with three sky blue gems. Yami glanced up again curiously, but the shadow of grief did not leave his face. "It's an heirloom that was said to carry the powers of…well, great powers. And the power would be transferred to the chosen bearer of it. I broke through the Seal using this to control how much power I use. My powers helped to break some of the spell it had on you, but I did not realise what…Yugi would do. All I can say now is I'm sorry."

She expected him to at least question her, or at least glare at her. He did no such thing, but just sighed.

"Whatever involvement you had, the sole reason why Yugi is gone is because of my selfish actions. None other's fault but mine."

"So if you know that, should you not be fiercer, more determined to get Yugi back? Don't you want to get his soul back?" Efrona questioned with a raised eyebrow. He glanced at her, and a spark of his old spirit came back into his eyes.

"Of course I want to get Yugi back. I'd give anything to have him back. But nothing will undo my actions. What has happened has happened," he snapped, and his voice shook on the last sentence.

"What has happened has happened. You're right about that, and you're right that you can't undo your actions. But you can rectify your mistake in the near future, if you stop sulking and get your mind to the task. The sooner you realise that, the sooner you will be able to get Yugi back, and if you want, find any way to apologise to him for what you've done. Probably right now, he would be concerned to see his best friend in such a state of despair. Surviving Battle City and Duellist Kingdom, he thinks you have made him stronger-has he made you any better? Or are you completely unchanged? Because with the way you seem to want to give up, it seems like his belief to 'never give up, even when things look bad', didn't impress you."

Efrona's speech was like a slap to the face for Yami, and sparked a bit of anger, for the first time not at himself, but at her. Of course Yugi had changed him. Yugi was the lighter half of him. His quiet courage and faith had affected Yami very well, and saved him in crucial moments of life, such as Pegasus' duel, his faith in Yami during Battle City, against Marik. Yes, Yugi had changed him, made him a better person from when he was first released from the Puzzle. 'But it's my own darkness that drove Yugi to sacrifice his soul for me.' He remembered bitterly. Efrona saw the bitterness begin to return to his face, and finished quietly, "Pharaoh, if you don't want to revive yourself, at least do it for Yugi. You won't fight for him at least?"

Another slap. Efrona winced and wished she could take back her tirade of words. But the Pharaoh had to wake up from his depression, had to realise that his state would not help anyone, himself or Yugi. She had to stoke his fiery spirit awake-to watch him so silent and despairing was just…plain wrong. Efrona hoped that her blunt speech had at least revived the Pharaoh.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, which I probably have," she resumed after a short silence, and bowed her head again. "Please forgive me for being rather cruel."

He surprised her by snorting a little.

"It's surprising how much bluntness can always ring true," the Pharaoh mused. He shook his head. "No matter how painful it is to face, you're right. I cannot just sit here and sulk."

"So don't. Come on, we should go back, the others will worry about you," Efrona said simply, and held out her hand. He hesitated, but allowed her to help pull him back up. The action was strange, since he was unaccustomed to letting himself be helped like that.

"Efrona?" he said quietly. She looked up at him enquiringly. "Thank you. For giving me an honest outlook."

She blinked and looked away, unsure how to reply. Thankfully, he moved on to another topic. "But can I ask what role you play here? Your abilities override the Orichalcos. So what is your purpose here?"

"To see destiny play out," she answered simply. "The answer to that question is complex, but my main duty is to…watch."

So saying, the two lapsed into silence and entered the train car where their friends were.

* * *

Joey, Tristan and Tea searched along the upper floor of the train car, only to find the same scene as below-no one but themselves aboard the once full train.

"There's not a soul here!" Joey muttered, and Tristan shuddered.

"Did you have to say 'soul'?" he hissed. A step behind the three had them whirling, only to see the Pharaoh and Efrona returning from wherever each had been.

"Hey, glad you showed up. Something weird's going on here," Joey told him. Tristan looked around warily.

"This train ride might just be another trap," he muttered.

"Those slime balls have to be behind this," Joey said angrily. "They must be on board."

The mention of them being in a possible trap, and having their enemy on board, sharpened Yami's mind. Narrowing his eyes, he went back the way he came, travelling to the next carriage. Efrona followed curiously, and Tea and the others close behind.

A strange creaking sound ripped through the tense air, and Efrona nearly jumped. She glanced at the floor of the travelling compartment, and saw the screws coming loose! Tea let out a cry as she stopped, teetering at the edge of her side, as the carriages began to grow apart.

"Tea!" the Pharaoh called out, reaching out an arm. Tea jumped, thanking the lucky stars that she was a dancer, and could do long leaps. She landed safely, and was quickly pushed into the safety of the next carriage. Joey and Tristan, however, were stranded in the car behind.

"Get help!" the Pharaoh managed to yell to the two boys, before his end had driven out of earshot.

The lower half of the train, which Joey and Tristan were on, slowed to a stop, having nothing to pull it. Joey and Tristan jumped out.

"Now what? Were in the middle of nowhere, and don't know where de other three are going to end up" Joey said. He looked in the direction the front half of the train had gone. "Just hang in there guys."

"Looks like it's just us man," Tristan said.

A low, dark chuckle caught their attention, and they turned around. Slowly stepping off the train was none other than Rex Raptor, with a glint in his eyes and wearing…the same duel disk as Rafael!

Rex smirked. "I have a score to settle with you," he told Joey. "You took my Red Eyes Black Dragon."

Joey sighed impatiently. "This isn't the time-" he began, but was cut off by Rex.

"Oh, but it's the perfect time-for revenge!" Rex crowed, and showed them his Orichalcos shard-worn exclusively by the Orichalcos users.

"Where's you get that?!" Tristan yelled.

"I knew it-he's working for them!" Joey hissed.

* * *

The cars were still moving on the other end, and Yami, Tea and Efrona moved further up, looking for any other people. Tea pressed the emergency intercom button, trying to contact the driver. However, she received no reply. So they kept moving ahead, until they reached the engine room. It was locked and separated from the passenger cars.

Yami looked up calculatingly. "I have to get in there and try to stop the train." He quickly began climbing up a ladder to get to the roof. "Maybe there's a hatch I can use to get inside."

He climbed onto the roof of the train, amid calls of caution from the Tea and Efrona. Slowly he stood up, and saw a figure standing on the other side of the car roof. Weevil.

Tea and Efrona wriggled up. Well, Tea stayed near the ladder, and Efrona had leapt onto the edge of the carriage, legs bent to steady herself in the air. At seeing Weevil, Tea pulled a disgusted face. "What are you doing here Weevil?" she snapped.

"Simple-I demand a rematch with the King of Games!" he chortled. His eyes glinted.

"Who put you up to this?" The Pharaoh yelled.

"No one," Weevil replied. "I just wanted to try out my new secret weapon." He pulled something out of his pocket and flashed it at them. An Orichalcos shard.

"You've been brainwashed!" Yami shouted.

"You're just being used," Tea added. Weevil just shrugged, smirk still in place.

"I don't care, as long as I have the ultimate power," he said.

"You're wrong-this is a bad choice!" the Pharaoh tried to warn, but Weevil's cockiness got to him.

"Oh just shut up and duel me!" he said, activating his duel disk-the same type as the one Rafael had been using.

Tea was sick of the Orichalcos, sick of the losses. "Don't you realise that if the two of you duel, one of you will lose your soul forever?" she cried.

"Of course I know," Weevil replied. "That's the reason I'm here. To seal him away! Soon Pharaoh, you will be locked away with your little friend Yugi!"

'Yugi!' The name registered instantly in the Pharaoh's mind. "Where is he?!"

"The only way you'll ever find out is to duel me!" Rex retorted, and Yami reluctantly activated his duel disk, accepting the challenge.

"Pharaoh!" Efrona shouted to be heard above the wind. He turned his head a little to indicate he heard. "Calm your mind. Yugi depends on you."

His mind was far from calm, his thoughts turbulent and desperate to know where Yugi was. But Efrona was right. He nodded, and tried to focus like he used to in his duels.

* * *

"What did you do with my friends?" Joey growled at Rex. The smirk never dropped from the dino-duellist's face.

"I didn't do anything-Weevil's taking care of the others while I deal with you," Rex said.

"You picked the wrong side, Rex," Joey warned, but Rex just snorted.

"I've been given more power than you could ever dream of," he replied. Joey hissed.

"I could duel circles around ya," he shot back. "Now get outta the way."

"I'm not going anywhere until we duel, Rex announced, blocking the two boys' way. Joey sighed, and reluctantly activated his duel disk.

"I'll trample this geek, then we can go find Yug, Tea and Efrona," he told Tristan.

Immediately after Joey said that, Rex had pulled out a card. He revealed it to Joey, smirk growing wider, if possible.

"Drop the card Rex. It's evil, and you have no idea what you're doing," Joey warned, seeing the Seal of Orichalcos card. Rex didn't listen. He slammed the card into his duel disk. Rapidly, the Seal expanded around them, sending Tristan backwards from being pushed. Dark laughter came from Rex as he lifted his head, and revealed cruel eyes tinted red.

Tristan sat up in his spot, worried for his friend. "Now whoever loses the duel will lose his soul!"

"I don't need the reminder," Joey grumbled. "I refuse to duel."

"You have no choice," Rex answered.

* * *

Please review!


	15. Chapter 14

This chapter is finally done! I would have finished this sooner, but things came up and piled on top of one another. My previous 'no life' period of time just made way to 'too much life-not the wanted one' time. 'Sighs'

Anyway, thank you to **The Duelist's Heiress** and **Koragirl** for the reviews! They are my drive to finish this.

Oh yes, this will be a three or four part series, depending on if I can work out how to split the huge plot I have made.

Enjoy!

* * *

"Look out!" Yami cried.

Both he and Weevil ducked just in time to avoid being knocked off the overbridge coming ahead. They straightened, and Weevil smirked.

"Thank you for the warning," he said, and continued his move, using a magic card to duplicate his weak monster, Leghul. Yami eyed the original and duplicates, not really impressed.

"I'm not afraid of a monster with only 800 attack points," he snorted. Weevil didn't look put off, but faintly amused.

"I'm disappointed that you don't recognise a good strategy," he said. "It must be true about what I've heard then-that without Yugi's help, you're nothing but a second rate wannabe! As soon as I win, you'll be locked away with your better half."

Tea clenched her teeth a little, angry at Weevil's words. "You don't have a chance, you cockroach!"

"Why thank you," Weevil replied, still with amusement on his face. "The cockroach is one of the strongest insects alive."

"If you're so tough, then show us what you've got and stop talking about it," Tea snapped. Efrona glared at him darkly. This annoying kid!

Weevil continued, unruffled, with his move, sacrificing Pheromone Wasp and Leghul to summon Insect Queen, who's attack points increased both because of the Seal of Orichalcos, and by the four insect monsters on both sides of the field. He sent his remaining Leghul to attack the Pharaoh's life points, and then sacrificed it to Insect Queen so she could attack. Insect Queen attacked Yami's Gaia the Dragon Champion. Yami had 1200 life points left from the whole series of attacks.

Because two of the insect monsters had vanished form the field, Insect Queen's attack strength decreased, but, to the cries of disgust from Tea and Efrona, it laid an egg. "It's already gross enough without seeing that," Efrona commented, recoiling a little.

"My insect army is slowly infesting the playing field," Weevil informed Yami. "In a few more turns, you'll be bug bait!"

"We'll see," Yami replied, narrowing his eyes angrily.

"Guys like you never win anyway," Tea added in an assured tone.

"Well then, what kind of person am I?" Weevil asked, and Yami immediately answered, anger laced in his tone.

"A greedy, power hungry worm."

"But what does that make you? Weren't you the one who wanted power so badly that you sold out your best friend for a taste of it? In your last duel, you were determined to win at any cost. You activated the Seal of Orichalcos, even though you knew it endangered the life of someone close to you. That's what I call power hungry and greedy. But now the Seal of Orichalcos and its power belong to me."

Weevil's words hurt deeply, and doubts edged into the Pharaoh's mind. He pushed the painful thoughts away, gazing at Weevil irately. "If you think you can win by playing head games," he snapped, "then you're sorely mistaken."

Efrona gaped at the sight she saw, and her eyes widened. The Pharaoh didn't even know that his body actions were going against what he said.

"I'm just opening you up to the truth," Weevil shrugged. "And whether you realise it or not, it's causing you to doubt yourself." He looked pointedly at Yami's hand, and said person looked at himself. His gaze widened at his hand-it was shaking badly. It was a wonder he could still hold his cards. Shocked, he grabbed it. Weevil laughed.

"I'd be shaking in fear, too, if I were the one who was about to lose my soul," he snickered. "Soon I'll be back on top, just like it was before you defeated me in Duellist Kingdom. I'll be Weevil Underwood, the new King of Games!" He sighed. "I almost forgot what it felt like to be worshiped and adored."

He went into a tale of his recent past, unaware Rex had done the same with Joey in their own duel. How they had a grand time frustrating little kids who wanted their autographs by taking their rarest cards, and going to private parties. After Duellist Kingdom, they were the mockery of the duelling world.

'This boy is nothing but a brat, even if he has suffered a little more than should be for just losing a duel.' Efrona thought contemptuously. 'Angry because the spotlight isn't on him anymore. It's a freaking duel, get over it and move on, become stronger. At least get a hold of yourself, and act mature about it. I didn't start going on drugs or do something stupid like that years ago after that incident-' She stopped thinking along those lines when she realised where it was heading, and paid attention to the duel again.

"Does your life feel like it's spinning out of control?" Weevil asked mockingly. Yami gritted his teeth.

"That's enough," he snapped.

"Two turns have passed since my cocoon appeared on the field," Weevil reminded. "It won't be long before it hatches, and when it does, you'll meet the same fate as your little friend Yugi."

Yami drew, and gazed almost absently at the card for a moment. 'I never meant for this to happen' he thought, and played Kuriboh. On the field, it grew antennae, and turned into an insect, giving Insect Queen a power boost. Yami then set a card face down, and ended his turn.

Weevil drew, but before he could do anything else, Yami activated his trap card, Natural Selection. A clone of Insect Queen appeared on his side if the field, and destroyed Weevil's. Startled, Weevil sacrificed his Insect Queen's egg to summon Armoured Caterpillar, and destroyed Kuriboh with it. Weevil ended his turn there.

The Insect Queen on Yami's side of the field self destructed into holographic particles, since the effect of Natural Selection only lasted for one turn. Now the only monster Yami had on his field was Weevil's cocoon, which was about to hatch.

"You won't get away with this!" Yami declared, and drew card. Sharp tingles shot up his arm from the card. However, Weevil only laughed like a crazy person-scratch that, he was a crazy person, to use the Orichalcos Seal in the first place.

"It's been three turns since I transformed your Obnoxious Celtic Guardian into a cocoon. Now it's time for my secret weapon to emerge. Poison Butterfly!" His laughing grew even madder-it was honestly a little scary. "I've given you a powerful monster, but it takes 500 life points from you for every turn it stays on the field."

"You shouldn't be laughing," Yami said, and showed the card that had sent tingles up his arm. The Eye of Timaeus. Efrona had to wonder though-she could sense none of the power she usually felt emanate from the card before it was played. In fact, when she tried to connect her mind to the dragon, which was rather hard in itself, she heard nothing but silence. Hopefully it was her that did something wrong, because the silence unnerved her badly.

Timaeus revealed himself on the field like normal. But when Yami tried to fuse Poison Butterfly with it, it vanished. It destroyed itself, and Poison Butterfly remained on the field. Realisation struck both Yami and Efrona at the same time, with high levels of shock and horror. Timaeus had abandoned the Pharaoh, because of his betrayal. It did not trust its owner. This event did nothing for the Pharaoh's state of mind.

Weevil nearly jumped in sadistic joy. "The dark magic of the Orichalcos is still within you! In your last duel, you turned your back on all your monsters, and now Timaeus is returning the favour."

Incensed and shocked herself, Tea called out to the Pharaoh, "Don't listen to him." But Yami shook his head slightly, ashamed. Weevil was right. He ended his turn, very dispirited.

Poison Butterfly's effect activated, and Yami was left with only 700 life points. Tea bit her lip. 'If the Pharaoh loses this duel, he's a goner, and we'll never rescue Yugi!'

Weevil drew, set one card face down and ended his turn.

"My move," the Pharaoh said, and Weevil smirked.

"I can't wait to deliver your soul to Dartz," he said happily.

"The duel's not over yet," Yami replied, and summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior. Weevil laughed and made a few smart aleck comments, which made Yami restate what he just said, impatiently.

"You can't win, but I'm willing to do you a favour before you lose," Weevil said. "I have a card in my pocket that I think you might like to see. It's the least I can do-after all, you ruined my life. Yugi's spirit is trapped deep in the caverns of Dartz's lair, and I know how to set him free."

That set a light ablaze in Yami's eyes. "Tell me how to save Yugi now!" he demanded fiercely. Weevil laughed. He was enjoying something, Efrona thought warily. He wouldn't tell the Pharaoh where Yugi's spirit rested, unless there was some price, right?

"In order to release Yugi's soul, you'll need a special card," Weevil continued with a smirk. "And I've got it right here." He took a card out of his pocket and held it up, the back of it towards Yami. Yami's eyes widened in desperation. He demanded the card, tone harsh from his whirling thoughts.

Efrona stared at him calculatingly. Why the hell would Weevil have Yugi's soul card? Rafael took the soul card, didn't he, when he took a card from Yami's deck as he lay unconscious? Even if he didn't, the soul card would have gone to Dartz. Why would Dartz give it to Weevil? Just to spite the Pharaoh didn't seem a good enough reason.

Weevil's smirk grew larger at Yami's demanding tone. "That's not a nice way to ask."

Far past the line of impatience, Yami began walking towards Weevil. Weevil shook his head.

"I'll teach you a lesson," Weevil said, and ripped the card in two! "Yugi's gone forever."

The roar of fury from Yami was frightening, as he shouted, "NO!" He glared at Weevil with unimaginable rage. "You snake!" Weevil laughed again.

"It was just a joke," he said carelessly. "I tore up a useless bug card."

"A joke-!" Efrona hissed furiously, hands clenching. Stupid, blasted, sadistic idiot! Tea growled beside her, with practically the same thoughts going through her mind. "That's _not_ funny."

Yami returned to his side of the field, and whipped around to face Weevil again. "You'll pay for that," he promised, in a deadly hiss, features contorted in rage. Weevil was startled; maybe even a little scared, by the Pharaoh's fury. To him, it was just a hilariously funny joke.

"There's nothing you can do," he shrugged. The look in Yami's eyes disagreed completely. He activated Breaker the Magical Warrior's special ability.

"Big deal, so you can destroy a magic or trap card…what?!" Weevil's draw turned into a yelp as realisation hit him. Yami could destroy his Insect Barrier. Which he did.

He used Poison Butterfly to attack Armoured Centipede, and then made a direct attack on Weevil's life points using Breaker. It brought Weevil down to 2200 life points.

"Nice try," Weevil grinned. "But now your turn ends, and Poison Butterfly will take the rest of your life points!" He did a strange victory dance on the spot, to ecstatic to notice Yami's serious, revenge hungry gaze.

He played the card, Berserker Soul, which allowed him to discard his hand to draw new cards until he drew a magic or trap card. Each monster he drew allowed him to attack with one of monsters he had on the field, as long as the monster has 1500 attack points or less, such as Breaker amount. Weevil froze as he realised the strategy, too late. The Pharaoh had been planning it all along!

Yami drew Queen's Knight, which allowed Breaker to attack Weevil's life points. They went down to 700. Then he drew Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts, allowing him to attack again with Breaker. Weevil's life points reached zero, but rage had clouded over Yami's mind, and he didn't stop drawing monsters. Even when the Seal had finished taking Weevil's soul, and the body had fallen to its knees, Yami did not stop drawing.

Horrified, Tea leapt up and clutched his arm down, hindering him. "Please Pharaoh, you have to stop!" she cried, and grabbed his hand as he struggled to complete his next attack.

"Let go of me!" he snarled, but despite his ferocious tone, his mind began to clear a bit. Efrona stepped in front of him and put her hand over his drawing one, helping Tea force it back to his side.

"Calm down! This fury you're in right now won't help bring Yugi back, nor impress him later," she said quietly at him. He jerked his head slightly, and then looked down at Tea, who had crystal tears slowly seeping out of her eyes and down her cheeks.

"You can stop now. It's over. You've won, and the Seal is gone," she whispered.

Breathing heavily, he looked at Weevil kneeling on the other side of the field. He looked back at the card in his hand. Dark Magician Girl. He remembered his goal, to get Yugi back. 'I have a promise to keep.'

He sprinted over to Weevil, taking him forcefully by the shoulders. "Where is Yugi?" he demanded, shaking the soulless boy. "Tell me!"

Tea tentatively crept closer. "It's no use Pharaoh," she murmured weakly. "You won…so the Seal of Orichalcos took him away."

Shock, fury, pain and hopelessness mixed on his face. Silently, he sank to the floor on his knees, staring at his empty hands. Empty, just like how he felt. He had lost his partner, and he had no clue how to get him back. It was his entire stupid fault.

Just then, Efrona gave a cry of alarm, and took a few steps forward. She pointed straight ahead, and her companions' gazed followed…to the edge of a cliff. They were going to fly off it. Before they could think of anything, the train had already flown off, with them on it.

* * *

Dartz watched the train fly off the cliff, and a frown came over his features. His different coloured eyes narrowed. "I need the Pharaoh alive," he murmured.

Suddenly, a flash of glistening blue swept over his vision, wrapping around the train in a tight ball. Faintly, in between intertwining gaps from the shimmering blue vines, he could make out the figure of a petite girl with black hair, front forelocks blue, eyes closed, floating in the middle of the blue shimmering cover that was creating a bubble around the train. That girl, Efrona. So she had powers after all. It was emanating from her.

As long as it was helping him though, he had no plans whatsoever of disturbing what she was doing. He needed the Pharaoh to be alive, and she was saving her and her companions' lives.

He watched as the train kept falling down towards the ravine floor, but at a slower pace, being pushed upwards by the sparkling, blue water, opposing its downward force. After a few moments, the train landed into the river, in the midst of a few rocks cropping above the surface of the river. Had the train landed on it with the full force it should have, without any obstacles, the rock points would have pierced through the train. Efrona herself was literally flying down onto the shore, and looked up at the side lying train. The bodies of the Pharaoh and his friend Tea were lying half on the train, half in the water-the two had been knocked out in the course of the fall. She checked both to make sure they were still alive, and then straightened out, gazing around.

Suddenly, Dartz's vision went black-something was blocking him from seeing them. He cursed quietly. Someone would have to go there and act as his eyes and ears then. If it was that girl, damn her, she did have potential to be harmful to his plans.

* * *

Efrona glanced around warily, looking for any danger. A light footstep made her turn to her left. A little girl, no older than seven maybe, looked at her with curious blue eyes and long brown hair hidden underneath a hat. "Grandpa, there are strangers here!" she called behind her, and then to Efrona, "Who are you?"

"I'm Efrona, and these are my…friends," Efrona replied, with a slight hesitation before friend. The term took her a little off guard-she was so used to being reserved, no one knew her really.

"You don't sound very sure they are," the girl replied. "I'm Chris."

Chris…the name sounded a bell in her mind somewhere. Before Efrona could think on it further, a towering man stepped up behind Chris, putting a hand gently on the girl's shoulder. He had a few wrinkles, and his hair was whitish-grey. Obviously the grandpa. "Hello, what do we have here?" His piercing gaze took in everything, and stared a little at the form of the Pharaoh. "Ah, he's here," he said softly. He walked forward, and stopped right before the tense form of Efrona. "You need not worry, I mean no harm. We wish to help."

Efrona backed out of his way, and went to help him and Chris lift her fallen friends. Looking around again, she realised Weevil was nowhere to be seen. He was probably taken back by some form of Dartz's magic, or something. She carefully supported Tea's weight along her shoulders and arm, and walked next to the old man. His image was very familiar, as also was the girl Chris'…if only she could remember.

"You are a strange person, miss," the elderly man said to her. Efrona started out of her thoughts and looked at him, puzzled.

"How do you mean?" she asked. Chris smiled at her.

"We can't read you at all. We know you've suffered somehow in your past, but that's all we can tell from you," she said.

"That and you know more things than most people, typically not believed by people these days," the man continued. "So who are you really?"

Efrona smiled at him, as she began to remember his image. How could she have forgotten it a few moments ago? With his straight bearing, wise eyes, and huge build, he was not easily forgettable.

"Oh, I'm Efrona Kwan, come from Domino," she replied lightly. Both Chris and her grandpa looked at her with raised eyebrows. "My story has many details, which you can trace back to…a very long time ago. In myths and legends. That would explain why your powers cannot read my soul." Eyes widened slightly at her statement, but no untrustworthy glances.

"You have powers of your own. It is how you saved your friends from being smashed into the rocks," Chris' grandpa said. "However, I sense it is something we will find out in time." He was saying he would not question her, and for that, Efrona was grateful.

"Thank you sir," she murmured. Ah, that's right; she remembered his name now, the courageous warrior king…

"Please, just call me Ironheart."

* * *

Please review!


	16. Chapter 15

Yes!! I got two chapters done!

Originally, this chapter and the next one were going to be one chapter, but then it turned out to be much larger than I expected, so I split it, and hoped it still flowed.

For those that are wondering, Traces Through Time:Part One, has little, if any, romance in it. That will come in part two and three, I think. I'm just going with the flow.

Those of you who know the Oh! My Goddess/Ah! Megami-sama story, my crossover there is fairly vague, and some things I'm making up. I've only seen the Oh My Goddess movie. (Do not own the movie, the manga, or anime.)

Thank you **Archangel Uriel**, **The Duelist's Heiress** and **Miorochi** for the reviews! They are much appreciated!

* * *

"The Pharaoh is very lonely without his counterpart," Ironheart commented.

"He seeks forgiveness for his mistake," Efrona replied softly. "Without Yugi, he is a shell of the former proud person he was."

"So you also know his history?" Ironheart asked curiously.

"No, I merely know he was a good Pharaoh who did his best to protect his people. Whatever else he was, I will not learn until he has learnt it," Efrona replied.

Ironheart pointed against a cliff face in the distance. His finger traced its side to the left. "One can walk along the cliff face, until the slope begins to descend. At the other side is a valley, a sacred spot where spirits may be called or found. The Pharaoh may be able to find his partner there. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of magic to make the sacred spot as powerful as it used to be, enough to attract the soul you look for. No one has visited there for many millennia."

"Magic? What kind?" Efrona asked.

"A large amount of light magic, one that Atlanteans did not use. I am not sure of its property," Ironheart replied. Efrona clasped her hands together, thinking.

"It was your plan to bring him there anyway, with or without restoring its power, just to rouse the Pharaoh," Efrona said after a while. Ironheart nodded.

"It is vital that he does, or the world will be wiped out, as it so nearly was many millennia ago. If the area did not have enough power to sustain itself and summon spirits…we would provide it."

The meaning hit Efrona in a second. "You and your granddaughter would sacrifice your souls to fuel it?"

"If it is necessary, yes. The fate of the world is at stake," Ironheart replied grimly. Efrona shook her head wildly. They could not kill their souls! That was what would happen to them. They were almost mere spirits, barely flesh and blood. To sacrifice them would be to fade from living existence!

"No, that isn't necessary! I will fuel it," Efrona exclaimed. Ironheart gave her a shocked look.

"It would kill you…"

"No, it wouldn't. The magic you saw me use before, summoning water, was a face of white magic, which I use. I will just use my magic to fuel it. No one will have to die."

Ironheart regarded her for a moment. "You know exactly who Chris and I are," he said at length. "You know of the Pharaoh's existence. Who are you, who knows so much more than a normal person would?"

"…you're question is really _what_ I am, yes?" Ironheart nodded at her words, bemused. "…I inherited powers from your myths and legends. The ones Atlanteans used to whisper about. I was a normal human, until this bracelet unlocked the powers sealed inside me. It's as old as when Atlantis was washed away by the tremendous tsunami."

Ironheart breathed sharply. "You have the powers of an Atlantean sorceress?"

Efrona shook her head. "No, my powers do not originate from Atlantis. They come from a civilisation far older than Atlantis. I'm sorry; I don't know what is necessary to say, and what isn't. I've been living in tight secrecy for three years, and the things that have happened would have made anyone very cautious. Right now though, I'm sure you will recognise this name-the Heavens."

Ironheart's brow furrowed, and then slowly, understanding and shock filtered into his face, as traces of childhood stories came back to him. "You are of the race of angel-people."

"My powers are from a woman of the angel-people, as you call them. I am one whose ancestor had a close link to an angel-woman. I think that is enough said."

Ironheart seemed to look at her with a new, almost disbelieving respect. He still remembered the tales of the powerful, advanced race. "I thought they were only myths…"

"Atlantis is a myth now-but is it?" Efrona asked dryly. She glanced at the cliff face, and back at the direction they had walked from, after setting the Pharaoh and Tea inside tents to rest. Ironheart wanted to collect the Pharaoh's deck, which had been scattered around the train wreck.

Ironheart smiled. "Yes, you are right there. But how do you propose to get to the valley before your friends wake up? It is not a short distance to walk."

"I am not going to walk. I will fly," Efrona said. She bowed her head to him. "Please, if the Pharaoh or Tea asks about me, could you just say that I went out to look at this place?"

"Yes, of course," Ironheart replied.

"Thank you," Efrona said. She bowed to him, and then turned around, flying into the air. She soared towards the area he pointed out, hair streaming out behind her from her ponytail, lower legs slightly bent back as if trying to avoid touching the ground about 100 metres below her. He sighed as he watched her get fainter in the distance. With the speed she was going, and the straight route she was able to use, she would be there in minutes.

"What is your role in fate, Efrona? For you are not powerful for no reason," Ironheart wondered, and then he began picking up the Pharaoh's deck.

* * *

_His vision was clouded by a wave of blue. Tendrils of sparkling blue vines wrapped around the train, surrounding him and his friend Tea. In the centre of all this, just before darkness claimed him, he saw the image of a girl flying in the midst of the watery blue mass encircling them, head thrown back and hair flinging into the wind. Her arms were outstretched and moving rapidly. A petite goddess had descended…no. The eyes, they had opened to reveal blue aquamarine. The forelocks of the girl were also blue._

_Efrona…?_

Yami started awake breathing a little faster than normal. He blinked and looked around, slowly regaining his bearings.

He was in a plain, small tent, lying on sheets that softened the hardness of the ground. Looking to his left, he saw Tea, still out of it. Panicking for a second, he reached over and gently shook Tea's shoulder. "Tea, wake up." To his relief, she stirred, indicating she was merely unconscious before.

"Huh? Where are we…?" she asked blearily.

Something suddenly burst in and in a blur, leapt on top of Tea. She fell to the ground with a cry, as a wolf loomed over her. Yami instinctively reached forward to somehow push the wolf away…but Tea was laughing, and it was licking her face playfully and happily, barking in between. Finished with Tea, it jumped onto Yami and gave him the same treatment, which elicited a small smile from him as he steadied in balance, sitting up.

"Sky! Stop it!" a voice cried, and a little girl of about seven ran into the tent. Her brown hair was hidden under a sun hat, and she skipped lightly to a sudden stop. "Oh, sorry. Sky didn't mean to wake you up." She smiled. "My name is Chris. My wolf, Sky, is the one who found you. Come on, I'll take you to my grandpa." She darted out of the tent, and Yami and Tea hastily followed her.

They walked a short distance, towards the train wreck. An old man was there, obviously Chris' grandpa. He jerked at seeing one of the cards, but catching sight of the kids, he straightened, and smiled. "Hello there. Good to see you're both awake."

"Thank you for your help," Yami thanked gratefully.

"It's nothing. I'm Ironheart. I believe you dropped these," Ironheart said, and held out his complete deck. "I see you have the legendary Eye of Timaeus."

Yami looked at the card, and shame welled into his being. He handed it back to Ironheart, looking away. "I don't deserve its power."

Ironheart didn't question the matter, and just nodded in understanding. "I'll hold on to it until you're ready then," he said, and pocketed it.

"Did you see a girl, about so height, with black hair and blue eyes? Also, a boy with glasses and a bad haircut. They were on the train with us when it crashed," Tea asked, peering around. Ironheart shook his head.

"We have not seen the boy you speak of. However, you're female friend has decided to explore the land right now, and will meet you both at a spot."

Efrona! Yami felt relieved knowing she was alright. The image he saw just before he fainted came back to him. Efrona, flying and controlling the water…it proved she was hiding something from them. She wasn't exactly 'normal' either. As for Weevil…

"I doubt Weevil would have been able to escape in the condition he was in. There is a greater power at work," Yami said firmly. Ironheart raised an eyebrow.

"I'm impressed. I've encountered many people on travelling, but there's something different about you that I've never seen before. I sense you hold a great deal of loneliness in your heart," he said to the Pharaoh, The Pharaoh looked down.

"I recently lost a good friend, and now I'm journey to find his soul," he said frankly.

"What will you do when you find him?" Ironheart asked.

"I'll apologise for breaking his trust and abandoning him."

"Hmm, I might be able to help," Ironheart said. "Follow me."

They took a narrow, dangerous route across the mountain face. They tried not to slip. One of the rocks came loose under Tea's foot though, and she was nearly flung off the cliff if Yami hadn't seized her wrist and yanked her back onto a steady foothold.

"We're going to a place on the other side where spirits dwell," Ironheart called to them. "My people believed that human souls existed around them, and just beyond this mountain is a sacred valley where drifting souls are said to gather as they wander. Your friend might be there, but so might evil spirits, too." His expression turned serious as he gazed at Yami. "Finding the soul you seek is easy. Leaving with your own is another thing. It's not too late to back out."

"I must go," Yami replied firmly. "I owe it to Yugi."

They skidded down atop a cliff, and gazed at the valley floor below. It was eerie-thin grey mist covered the valley floor, there was no plant life, and it looked as if no one had been down there in ten millennia. There was a large circle faintly visible marking the ground.

"What must I do once I get there?" Yami asked Ironheart.

"You must enter the circle alone," Ironheart simply replied. Yami nodded, and strode downwards to the valley floor. Tea was about to follow him, but Chris pulled her back.

"Only one soul seeker is allowed to enter the valley at one time. If you follow, the spirits will find you immediately," Ironheart explained.

Yami arrived at the valley floor, and a figure stepped in front of him, seemingly out of a boulder, several of which were lying around. He blinked-Efrona? She gazed at him closely, as if trying to find something in his features. There was a mixture of wariness and weariness in her once happy, now always serious eyes. How different she was to the first day she was at Domino High School. Was it just him, or did her eyes seem to glint a little too brightly? There was no sunlight here.

"Are your emotions under control now?" she asked abruptly. Taken aback, he replied.

"Yes." Her gaze lowered a little, away from his eyes. Truth be told, she wasn't used to sticking up to someone who had such a…_commanding_ gaze, even when he had despair in him. It was rather unnerving for her, but she wanted to make sure he would come out with his soul. She softened her voice, to make it less abrupt and walked a little ahead of him, hearing the soft footsteps of him following, he staring at her in surprise. Her presence there was unexpected. She slowed and dropped to his side.

"I'm sorry for being rude. Just make sure that as you walk through, don't let yourself get the faintest bit distracted, or the bad souls will eat your spirit. Keep the person you search for firmly in your mind, and call for him. He'll definitely come." She stopped, startling him enough to stop with her. She shook her head. "I can't come any further, or the magic of this place will collapse. Go on ahead and find your partner. I know you have questions about me, but they should be for later."

Yami nodded, and pushed aside his puzzlement at seeing her on the valley floor. "Thank you for the advice," he merely said, and walked on ahead. As he walked closer towards the circle, the mist seemed to thicken, thickly obscuring his view, and the air temperature dropped by several degrees.

Laughter broke through the silence, dark, heavy and chilling. They sky above darkened. Yami halted, slightly alarmed. "Who's there?" he called out, but when nothing answered him, he walked on, uneasily shrugging of the sound. He was close to the circle now, but each step he took, whispers around him started and grew increasingly louder.

"Turn back…" the voices breathed. Yami stopped again, frustrated.

"Show yourselves!" he demanded. Small orbs of light began forming all around him, and swirled crazily around the inside of the circle. He entered the circle, and forms began to take shape around him as he walked.

"What's happening?" Tea gasped.

"The Pharaoh is attracting the lost souls seeking revenge," Ironheart replied to the shocked and severely worried girl.

Shadowy forms of Yami's beaten opponents took form, startling him to an almost complete standstill. Panik, the Paradox Brothers, Bandit Keith, the cheating rare hunter… He felt his mind drift away from his purpose slightly, and the orbs of light danced closer to him. The whispers grew louder, more eager, while some just moaned.

"_Don't let yourself get the faintest bit distracted, or the bad souls will eat your spirit._" Efrona's voice warned from his memory. He forced his attention away from the shadowy forms, and resumed his normal purposeful stride. "_Keep the person you search for firmly in your mind…"_

Setting his jaw, he moved forward, passing Arkana and dodging a smirking Yami Marik. As he neared the centre of the circle, Weevil stood right in front of him, smirking almost as maniacally as the dark Marik. Yami didn't so much as even glance at him, but looked straight ahead, passing right through the form. His eyes were steely and determined to get his partner back. Finally, he made it to the centre of the circle.

"…_call for him. He'll definitely come."_ Efrona said before. Yami took a deep breath, and yelled out, "Yugi!"

The golden orbs flying around flew together before him, combining together and glowing. Tea gasped at the sight, and looked at Chris and Ironheart. "A spirit is crossing into our world," Chris answered her unspoken question.

Efrona closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. 'This will hurt, Pharaoh. But it's for your own good.' A smile touched his lips. 'Maybe you'll be properly motivated after this, and filled with confidence again, instead of this despair that has been hanging over you for the past few days.'

The manifestation in front of Yugi cleared and sharpened in form. Yami found himself gazing into the near childish eyes of his partner. "Yugi!"

Yugi blinked and looked up at him in surprise. "Pharaoh? Is that really you?"

Yami reached out to him, but his hand passed right through Yugi's shoulder. Yugi kept gazing at him, strangely puzzled. "You came all this way just to see me?"

"Of course," the Pharaoh replied, his voice going slightly hoarse from emotion. "I'm so sorry, Yugi."

"I'm sorry too," Yugi said sadly. "I wish this whole thing never happened." His blonde forelocks fell into his eyes, shielding them from view.

The words were painful enough to Yami, and brought shame back without too much help. "This is my fault. I gave in to the darkness within me, and you paid the price. Now that you're gone, I can feel the darkness starting to grow inside me. Without you here to keep me pure, I'm becoming…evil. Perhaps what Rafael said was true-perhaps I was a wicked king. What if I was the one responsible for the destruction of Egypt? If that's true, then it's my soul that should be locked away."

Slowly, Yugi looked up, and it was startling to see such animosity in his normally gentle eyes. "What good is that now?" he demanded. "I'm the one who's been locked away forever."

Yami started as a second, deeper lash of pain welted on his heart. "Yugi, I'm sorry…"

Yugi broke in harshly. "The last thing I need is your pity. If you were really evil, then there's only one thing to do."

Yugi began walking away in the opposite direction. A duel disk formed on his arm. After a good distance for what they were about to do, he turned back around to face Yami. "Your spirit should be locked away too. And I'm going to do it."

"No! You misunderstood," Yami gasped, stunned at Yugi's idea.

"You don't deserve to be a part of this world," Yugi snapped. It was another whiplash on Yami's heart. "It's time you started taking responsibility for what you've done! Face me like a man and duel me!" Yugi activated his duel disk.

"No…" Yami protested feebly. Yugi wouldn't let him off.

"It's time to make you pay. If you're really sorry, then you'll do this," the younger looking image hissed.

Yami stared at his partner, who now had rage and burning vengeance in his eyes. He didn't want to duel Yugi, his best friend. He may deserve to be sealed away in the Orichalcos, but this would not make things better between them really. However, Yugi left him with little other choice. Reluctantly, he activated his duel disk.

"Very well. You give me little other choice," he murmured sadly.

"Why is Yugi going to duel himself?" Tea wondered, confused. Ironheart replied.

"It's the only way."

"This is why we took the Pharaoh here," Chris chimed in. "So he can face his other half and deal with what he did, then put it behind him and move on."

Tea was surprised that Ironheart and Chris not only knew about Yami's real identity somewhat, but knew this would happen. "How do you know all this?"

"We've always known it," Chris replied softly. "We were taught that a warrior would come to save the world, and as soon as we saw him, we knew that he was the one."

"The Pharaoh's first step is to face his inner fears and conquer the darkness in his heart," Ironheart took up. "But if he loses this battle, the Pharaoh's spirit will remain here forever."

The whole duel was a strange farce of the one Yami had been playing against Rafael. Yugi had the attitude that Yami had when he used the Orichalcos. To Yami and Tea's shock, he really did use the card, to turn the duel into a wager of souls. After activating the Seal of Orichalcos, Yugi's moves re-enacted what Yami had done, sacrificing his monsters left and right with a cruel expression on his face.

Yugi ordered Queen's Knight to jump onto Catapult Turtle, so she could be thrown at Yami's open life points and damage them. Yami gasped as he remembered doing the same thing with Dark Magician Girl, remembered seeing the sad glint in her eyes as she did as she was told. "No!"

Too late, she was hurled at him, and his life points took a major hit. One more hit and his soul would be sealed like Yugi's. "I can't lose," he muttered desperately. "If I do, I can't set you free, and the two worlds will crumble."

"But you don't care about that," was Yugi's cold, snide reply. "You're evil. Last time, you didn't care who suffered." Yugi sent Dark Magician Girl flying at Yugi, ready to destroy the last of his life points.

Just in time, Yami activated his face down, Divine Wind, sending the attack back at Yugi with twice as much force. Yugi's eyes widened, and the hatred in his eyes disappeared. He smiled, and took the hit with a small cry, before falling.

Yami raced forward and caught the smaller boy before he could hit the ground painfully. Yugi smiled up at him proudly, and the Seal mark faded from his forehead. "You passed the test," he said weakly. "It was the only way. By defeating me, you were able to defeat the darkness that was inside your heart. You did what was best for me and for mankind, and acted like a true hero."

"But now what?" Yami asked; his eyes pained.

Yugi lifted his eyes, sensing the weakness beginning to leak from the power source of the area, and spotted a girl a few metres away from the circle, leaning against a boulder and breathing a little unevenly. It was best not to try Efrona; she looked like she was having enough trouble already to keep her magic sustaining the area. He had already been there for such a long while. "Good luck," he smiled gently at Yami, and his image began to fade.

"No!" Yami cried in alarm. He was losing his best friend a second time.

"Don't…give up. I'll…always…be with you," Yugi breathed, and he disappeared in a trail of sparkles that flew away in a sudden breeze. Yami was left kneeling on the ground, alone again.


	17. Chapter 16

Trembling, Yami raised himself back onto his feet. His heart ached again for his partner, his best friend that had once again been sealed away. He fell to his knees again, losing the will to stand. "I'll save you Yugi, no matter what!" he screamed, but tears fell from his eyes, and he wept for the sorrow, anguish and shame he carried.

'If it weren't for me, Yugi would still be here. I'll never forgive myself.' He thought bitterly. The memory of Yugi pushing him out of the Seal of Orichalcos replayed in his mind again. 'It's not fair! It should be me that was locked away. I was the one who played that card. I won't rest until I get him back!'

Tea bit her lip as she watched this display of heart ache. "The Pharaoh has got to snap out of this-if he keeps wallowing in the past, we'll never find Yugi," she murmured helplessly. The intensity of those bottled up emotions was almost scary though. She doubted she could do anything to help him. That ate at her almost as badly as losing Yugi.

Lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, and the ground shook. Yami stood up, puzzled at the sudden odd behaviour of nature around him. "It's an earthquake!" he heard Tea cry from her high perch on the cliff. There was a murmured reply from Ironheart, but the tone was worried.

Efrona lurched onto her feet and ran towards the circle. This was bad. Something was happening, and she didn't know what to expect, but the Pharaoh wasn't safe alone in that still magical place. Part of her magic was still lingering, so if something big and dangerous came from the spirit world…

She needn't have worried about spirits. The ground in front of Yami suddenly split open, forcing him to back away. Black smoke came from the split. The smoke formed into a solid form of a huge, grey creature in armour, red eyes glaring, the Seal of Orichalcos glowing on its forehead.

It roared terribly into the skies above, and a duel disk formed on its thick arm. As if in defensive response to this…monster thing, the orbs of white that were souls, which had circled the area before, came back, and circled Yami. A small figure burst through the moving white mass, and Efrona panted slightly as she backed up a little from the gigantic monster looming before them. "Pharaoh…get out of here…" she gasped in short breaths. However, the spirits that had come back, their lights becoming feeble, disagreed. "Close your eyes and see the truth," they whispered to the Pharaoh.

"What are you trying to show me?" he murmured.

"The past," was the reply. Two of the spirits encased themselves around Efrona's hand and raised them up forcefully to his temples. She gasped, and tried to force them down vainly. Her fingertips touched his temples firmly but gently.

Images jolted through both of them-for Yami, it was a vision. For Efrona, a memory of a dream-the only way she learnt about Atlantis' past.

Thousands of soldiers like the one that had suddenly appeared from the ground, were in this vision. Yami remembered the ancient war Rafael had spoken of in their duel, light and darkness fighting against each other. This had to be it. These…Orichalcos soldiers were massing against the other side…an army of duel monsters.

'Could this be how the city of Atlantis was destroyed?' he wondered. He looked more closely, and for a few moments, spotted something that shocked him. Or rather, some people. Chris and Ironheart were standing with the duel monsters.

The vision abruptly stopped, and he was back in the circle, with one Orichalcos soldier on the opposite side of him. He caught Efrona as she stumbled forwards from shock, and steadied her on her two feet. He wondered what the vision meant.

As if hearing his question, Ironheart answered from his place, "I once faced this soldier and his army in the great battle to save Atlantis. This is the same spot where we made our last stand against the evil Lord Dartz, and now the battle continues."

"What does that mean-that Orichalcos soldier gonna fight us?" Efrona said, and there was alarm written all over her face. She stared at the soldier closely.

What if…it was one of the angel race of the Heavens turned into the Orichalcos children, or soldiers? What if this one, standing right before her, was one of them, and was trapped in the dark abyss of their own pain?

The Seal of Orichalcos suddenly descended, forming around them and Yami, her and the creature. She glanced around, bemused as to why they were trapped in the Orichalcos Seal for seemingly no reason. Damn Dartz and his spells, he must have sent it.

Yami stared at the duel disk on the opposing creatures arm, and realised what it wanted-a duel. A card appeared on the duel disk, and an Orichalcos monster burst from the ground, strange and equally as ugly as the duellist it served. It towered over them and swung a fist down. Both he and Efrona jumped in separate directions to doge the blow.

"Efrona, are you alright?" Yami called urgently.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but look out!" she shrieked as the monster came at him, and swung its fist down again. The spirit orbs of light massed in front of him and repelled the blow.

"The lost spirits of Atlantis are here to protect you, but they can't act alone. Summon your monsters, and the spirits will assist them," Ironheart called.

'So that's why they clung so tenaciously to this mortal plane, to protect the Pharaoh after his duel with Yugi! They must have known it was coming.' Efrona realised.

The spirits flew into Yami's deck, and he activated his duel disk. "Together, we'll take down this beast!" he said confidently, as he edged Efrona behind him for her protection. For all the mystery she was, he doubted she could defend herself at the moment. She looked rather bewildered and frustrated at the moment.

Yami summoned Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts and Berfomet, then played Polymerization to form Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast and attacked. It destroyed the ugly opposing duel monster, and the Orichalcos soldier's life points decreased. Efrona winced, wondering whether she should interrupt the duel and try and revive the angel part, if it was an angel who had turned dark from despair. If it wasn't, she couldn't give a damn about it. The real Orichalcos soldiers were born from, and were, pure evil.

The monster Yami just destroyed came back to life though, with higher attack points. Chimera destroyed it again, but it revived again, with even higher attack points. Yami saw this, and played Fissure, hoping it would get rid of it for good, but it came back again, stronger than before, and destroyed Chimera.

Because of Chimera's effect, Yami summoned Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts. The opposing monster attacked, but this time Yami used Mirror Force to reflect the attack back. It was destroyed again, but came back to life again stronger! It destroyed Gazelle, reducing more of his life points, and due to the force of the attack, Yami was knocked over onto the ground, temporarily winded. The other monster prepared to crush him, and Efrona stepped up next to him instinctively, though her mind was blank.

Yami summoned Obnoxious Celtic Guardian just in time to defend him. Though he lost life points, his monster stayed on the field. However, it would not last long, and then Yami would lose. The card he needed wasn't with him. Efrona cried out, "Timaeus, do you forgive him now? He has suffered, and woken from his despair, willing to do what's right!"

A sudden answering dragon roar in her head nearly mentally deafened her-she had forgotten she had left the link open-but brought so much joy she nearly smiled, if it weren't for the fact that they were in a desperate situation. She looked back, and gasped. Ironheart had jumped down, and was running towards them, a card clutched in his hand. The card they needed. But it was so dangerous for him to come close!

A small orb flew out of Yami's deck and enclosed around her hands again, jerking it up and touching it to the Pharaoh's temples. She grumbled but wasn't too startled at it. She knew what it was doing. Showing him visions of the past through her memories of dreams she had. "I feel like a sack being dragged along," she muttered.

In the vision, Yami saw utter chaos, the Orichalcos soldiers destroying the duel monsters. Ironheart and Chris stood among them. Suddenly, Timaeus swooped overhead, breathing out a large blast of fire and mowing down hundreds of Orichalcos soldiers in seconds.

The dragon suddenly stopped and turned, seeing Dartz standing on a huge, serpentine beast, laughing evilly. Timaeus instantly flew up to him, but the Seal appeared on Dartz's forehead. He launched a series of power attacks from his hands. Timaeus dodged them all and continued rapidly towards Dartz. A sword suddenly appeared in his hand, and he threw it at Timaeus. Yami called out as it stuck the dragon in the eye, and the dragon went spiralling out of control, crashing into the ground. He could do nothing about it-this was a vision of the past, no more.

Dartz ordered his serpent-like beast to finish Timaeus off. It launched a powerful beam from its mouth. Timaeus would not go down without one last effort. The dragon raised its head and sent out its own powerful beam. The two beams met and exploded fantastically, blinding Yami.

He was literally shaken out of his daze by the fist that landed near Celtic Guardian. Efrona dropped her hands, her gaze looking up at the Orichalcos soldier. She looked behind, to see Ironheart sprinting towards them, and Chris riding on a much larger version of her wolf Sky to help him. They needed more time, and Efrona decided to risk checking if the duellist was actually one of the angel-like race.

"Look out for Ironheart!" she called to the Pharaoh, and flew up into the air, spinning behind the Orichalcos soldier. It confused it enough to turn, and her palm landed on the Orichalcos Seal on its forehead. Her eyes took on the slightly unnatural glow of sunlight sparkling into her eyes when there was none. All the Pharaoh could do was watch, wide eyed at seeing her _fly_, and fended off the opposing duel monster with his Celtic Guardian. He didn't have to worry long for her, because she was back within moments, shuddering.

Tea gaped at the whole scene. What was going on, and _who were half of these people?_

"Definitely not," Efrona muttered, and both she and Yami turned back to see Ironheart getting struck by lightning. Both cried out and ran to the Seal's barriers, unable to go any further because they were trapped. 'Damn, my trick only works once-the Orichalcos Seal recognises my magic presence, and blocks it now.' Efrona thought angrily.

Chris reached her grandfather and spoke with him, before he disappeared into a stream of bubbles which blew away in the breeze. Wiping away her tears, she clambered back onto Sky and went charging towards the duel.

"No! Stay back!" Yami warned, and suddenly became aware that Celtic Guardian was about to be hit by the other monster. He quickly played Kuriboh and Multiply, to absorb the attack.

Another bolt of lightning came down, aiming for Chris. Both she and her wolf fell. Chris struggled back to her feet, but Sky dissolved away. Chris sprinted towards the Pharaoh, as lightning bolts followed her, trying to hit her. Just as she reached the Seal, one struck the mark, and she collapsed onto the ground. With an effort, she raised herself, and her hand pierced right through the Seal and proffered Yami the card that could save them.

"This is the only thing that can stop him," she said. "It saved all of us once, and with your help, it can do it again."

With pain filled eyes at her slowly fading form, he took the card, and said a low, hoarse thanks. Chris cocked her head at Efrona.

"I understand how you did it before-it works once, but its enough, thank you for helping us," she said. Her eyes switched back to Yami, and she let out a weak, but hopeful smile. "I trust you," she whispered, and the little girl dissolved.

"No! How could he, that bastard!" Efrona screamed, lunging for the place where the girls hand was before, but she only got a handful of rapidly disappearing bubbles. She bit her lip and bowed her head, mourning.

Yami clenched his fists in grief and anger, and turned back to the duel. 'There's only one thing left I can do,' he thought, and gazed at his Eye of Timaeus card. 'I hope I'm worthy of your power. I'm truly sorry for betraying you, but for the sake of my friends, and all the innocent people at risk, I beg you to help me. The future of two worlds hangs in the balance.' With that, he sacrificed Celtic Guardian and summoned Dark Magician Girl. He summoned Eye of Timaeus and fused the two monsters to create Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight, then played the Excalibur magic card to increase Dragon Knight's attack points, and attacked. The monster was destroyed, as well as the Orichalcos soldier, and the huge explosion engulfed the whole valley in white light.

The Seal of Orichalcos vanished, and Yami thanked the Dark Magician Girl and Timaeus mentally. "It's only just the beginning," he murmured to himself.

* * *

An hour later, the three gazed at a stone carving depicting Chris, Ironheart and Sky. The three legendary dragons flew over them.

"Is this really a carving from ten thousand years ago?" Tea asked, awed.

"It is," Yami confirmed.

"So…they were just ghosts?" Tea pondered.

"They were spirits who once fought a great war, and now they've been captured by Dartz. Now I have three more reasons to hunt down this madman and bring peace to the world once again," Yami replied, determination glinting in his eyes and filtering through in his tone.

Tea knelt and gently laid down a sprig of flowers she had managed to find to pay respect to Ironheart and Chris'…death. She bit her lip, looking sadly at it. Efrona laid a comforting hand on Tea's shoulder.

"You know, it's sad that they risked so much for the sake of us, and were such important people in history, but they were forgotten," Tea said softly. "Even this stone will eventually corrode."

Efrona knelt down beside Tea. Beside her, she laid down a bowl of water which she had retrieved from a stream nearby. "Then let their memory last forever," she said softly, and flitted her hands over the water, and then over the stone carving. She closed her eyes, hoping it would work. It had worked when she was twelve.

Yami and Tea watched in awe as the water rose out of the bowl, and wrapped itself around the carving, encasing it in tight skin of water. It hardened, becoming brighter, and the sunlight which streamed down caught on its shiny surface and sent out rainbows across the ground around it. Tea hesitantly tapped it, and shivered a little.

"Ice," she murmured in surprise. Yami felt it curiously himself. Strange-the texture was very smooth, and the colour crystalline blue, just like ice, but it was not as cold as one would expect. Nor was it melting in the sunlight.

"This way, their memory won't be forgotten," Efrona explained quietly. She backed away a little. "Grief will never completely disappear, and clings like forever frozen ice to the sides of one's heart. So it can be used to create this."

Tea looked at her, the look that said, 'you have a lot of explaining to do.' Efrona shook her head. "There's not much I'm meant to tell you," she murmured. "It's hard to say, but mainly I'm only meant to watch, and make sure Dartz isn't playing too dirty. That's about all I can do to help. I'm sorry for that, and sorry for keeping secrets."

"And that is more than we could already ask for," Yami broke in calmly. It was what she had said on the train, while trying to rouse him out of his depression. He understood the closed gate behind her voice, when she said it was "hard to say." It was just one of those things you won't get an answer to until later. He had seen enough of that from Ishizu Ishtar. "You did not have to be involved with this madness at all."

Efrona bit her lip and looked away. Yami realised that yes, she had to be, for whatever reason she had. "So that's why you came to Domino…you sensed all of this was going to happen…" he said.

"I knew the chosen ones would come from Domino, and went to see for myself, these three chosen ones," she murmured. "What I hadn't counted on was for at least two of them and their friends to try and befriend me." She smiled wryly. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be this close to any of you, but probably looking from a cliff and being a part of the background."

"So, did you only make friends with us because of its usefulness, to be close to the action?" Tea asked, and there was a flash of hurt in her eyes. Efrona wildly shook her head.

"Come on, give me a break," Efrona protested, and her tone was that of a normal teenager. "Sure, I seem pretty weird, but I'm not that mean. You guys were all really kind and I wanted to be friends for the sake of friendship. Actually, it was kind of scary letting that friendship happen in the first place. I haven't had friends since I was…what, twelve?"

"…" Both Tea and Yami stared at her, shocked at her confession. She smiled in embarrassment, and looked to her side. She blinked at the sun. "Don't you think it's time we get out of here and look for the others?" she asked.

"Yes, we should go find them," Yami said, concern in his voice for his other two friends, Joey and Tristan.

Together, they helped each other clamber out of the valley, and made their way to the train wreck site. Thanks to the fact Efrona could fly, they quickly traced a climbing route to reach the tracks where they fell off. Actually, Efrona was rather surprised that none of them asked about her powers. They would come later, she supposed. Right now, it was important to reunite with their other friends.

'Hang on, I just thought of them as my friends as well, when before, when Chris found us, I wasn't sure whether I considered them friends or just acquaintances who I would say goodbye to soon.' Efrona suddenly realised. She never let herself do that, because she knew that to make a close bond such as friendship with someone would be pointless and painful in the end. Why was it different now? Why did she want to stay close to them? Why did she even decide to accompany them to Industrial Illusions in the first place?

Maybe…it was the obvious friendship aura that surrounded the group. You didn't need magic to see it. It was in how they could act so easily around each other, how they had so much faith in each other, the list went on. Efrona longed for that type of easygoingness, but could never reach to the level these people had. It hurt to watch sometimes, and the ache of loneliness in her heart had become a daily thing to her lately.

"All we have to do is follow the train tracks, and we'll find Tristan and Joey!" Tea said, face hopeful and smiling. Yami agreed, also with a small smile on his face. His spirit had returned after the duel with Yugi, thankfully. Efrona quickly shook herself out of her thoughts.

"We have a long way to go, so let's just start and get the walking over with," she said dryly, and they began walking. She immediately sank back into her thoughts.

'I wonder if Joey, Tea, Tristan, Yugi, maybe even the Pharaoh think of me as a rather close friend. Because I get the feeling, I'll feel just as dejected as Mai was in her low point, if they didn't think of me as at least a friend. I hadn't even realised I was unconsciously trying to be more outgoing. I wouldn't blame them if they didn't think like that though. I keep too many secrets.'

* * *

Well, nothing more to say but please review!


	18. Chapter 17

Here you go folks, chapter seventeen! I hope you all enjoy.

Thank you Miorochi and The Duelist's Heiress for their reviews! Much appreciated!

Disclaimer: Do not own YGO or Oh My Goddess/Ah! Megami-sama

* * *

Mai sped up the near deserted highway on her motorcycle, dark determination glinting in her eyes. 'It's time to finish what I started, and defeat Wheeler.'

A gang of bikers detained her though. They caught up with her, and sneered, "Go back to the playground, girlie." Bad idea to taunt her. She had no patience for them. In a flash she had summoned Harpie Lady and commanded it to whip them off their bikes. She sped away, leaving them to eat her dust.

Further up the highway though, Valon sped down, heading in a collision course with her. Both gritted their teeth and kept going, suddenly braking inches away from each other. They stared at each other, gazes burning.

"I told you to stay away," Mai finally said.

"I only came to help," Valon replied, but Mai rejected his help. Valon took a slightly different approach.

"Remember the day we met? I can help you get your revenge, and the satisfaction of knowing Wheeler got what he deserved. First we'll beat him, then we'll take on the world."

Mai saw into his eyes, the flash of intense emotion that came from his heart. It was probably the only honest and true emotion he felt in awhile. Working for Dartz involved a lot of sneaking and lying. "I don't like you Valon," she said firmly.

Valon sat down on a rock. "We're alike, Mai. Lonely and misunderstood."

"Mai Valentine works alone, and that will never change," the female rejoined.

Again, further up the highway, Duke and Rebecca were driving down the road, towing the Hawkin's motor home behind his car. "I don't think we should have left so soon," Duke muttered, but Rebecca waved the misgiving aside.

"Time is running out, and we have to catch up with the others now. Besides, they can't translate the ancient ruins without my grandpa's help," she said.

Duke suddenly jerked to a stop at the sight of Mai Valentine and Valon, recognising them as workers for Dartz. Rebecca leapt out of the car and dashed up to Valon. "What did you do with Yugi?" she demanded. Valon smirked.

"Never heard of him," he lied obviously. Furious, Rebecca activated her duel disk.

"You and me, duel, right now! If I win, you talk."

Duke leapt out of the car as well. "Wait Rebecca, it's too dangerous!" he tried to warn, remembering the Seal of Orichalcos, but Rebecca shook her head.

"I've duelled tougher opponents than him," she snorted. Valon accepted. It was a good chance to impress Mai with his duelling skills and tactics. Duke got involved, because he would not let Rebecca duel alone against someone who possessed the Seal of Orichalcos.

However, Valon never played the Seal of Orichalcos. He did defeat both of them though, despite their excellent teamwork. His deck consisted of strange armour pieces which altogether was an excellent combination of defence and offence together. With wounded prides, Rebecca and Duke told him to get lost.

When he turned back to Mai, she was on her motorcycle, and even though she had been impressed with his duelling, she still harshly told him, "I work alone." She drove off, with Valon gazing after her. His gaze was just as intense as when he and Mai nearly crashed into each other down the highway.

* * *

Tea sighed in relief as her feet sank into the cool stream they had stumbled across while walking. She eyed her shoes distastefully-they were not meant for anything like bushwalks, and here she was trekking how many kilometres. "If I'd known we'd be hiking, I would've worn better shoes." Yami smiled a little at her half complaint, half jest.

"Hmph. If you think that's bad, try lugging around a duel disk," he replied, dipping a hand in the soothingly cool water himself.

Efrona had shrugged out of her coat long ago, and was wearing a half sleeve blue top. She shifted the sleeves a little, and splashed water on her arms. "Sounds bad all the same. I wonder how the others are doing then, if they have to trek like us," she wondered.

"It shouldn't be long before we reach them," Yami replied.

Efrona glared at the sky. She usually loved it when it was clear like it was at the time, but right at the moment it was a temptation for her to just fly along the tracks in the sky. Less physical work. But she didn't want to be rude and ditch her friends. Plus, that was a lazy way out. Yami noticed her glare at the sky, and remembered she could fly.

"You could go ahead," he said, but she shook her head.

"No, better just walk. No point in flying, because then I'd just be going back and forth between you two here and the two somewhere along the train tracks." She grinned. "I'd get fat soon if I keep skipping the exercise."

"Oh yeah, we do this type of work out everyday," Tea muttered sarcastically, but both grinned at each other, while Yami shook his head and let the two girls share their own girl joke between each other. If there was even a joke. Pharaoh that he was before, some things weren't for him to understand.

They continued walking, and maybe a quiet hour later, something broke the monotony of their walk. Yami's deck glowed, and above, Timaeus took form and flew up into the clouds. Faintly they could make out the two other legendary dragons, Critius and Hermos, supporting a falling plane, slowing it. They ran ahead, and incidentally caught up with Joey and Tristan.

Relieved at being a whole group once more, they glanced at the falling plane. Efrona squinted, and instinctively floated several metres up the air, scaring the crap out of Tristan and Joey, but she didn't pay attention to the reactions. The Pharaoh and Tea could explain it later, or she would, when they had time.

"Isn't that Kaiba Corp's insignia on the tail of the plane?" she asked, puzzled, as she flew back down. They started, and glanced up.

"Follow that plane!" Joey said, and they took off in the direction of the plane.

It 'crashed' softly, by aid of the dragons, in a nearby field. The dragons abruptly disappeared, and Efrona heard their content sighs in her still open mind link to them.

"Hey, it is one of Kaiba's planes!" Joey muttered darkly.

The door slid open, and Kaiba stood in the doorway, carrying the limp form of crimson haired Alister. At the sight of Yami and his friends, his nose wrinkled slightly. He jumped down. "Great, just what I need, the dweeb patrol," he muttered. Mokuba jumped down beside him, yelling up to Roland in the helicopters flying above, that had been chasing the falling plane.

"You duelled Alister on top of a falling plane?" Joey quipped.

"Maybe I did," Kaiba replied snidely, and looked at the whole group. "Don't you have someone else to annoy?"

"We can't do this without you Kaiba," Yami said, mustering some patience. "Just accept your destiny and help us stop this evil."

"If I had a dime for every time you said 'destiny', I'd be richer than I already am," Kaiba retorted.

Just then, Roland ran up to the Kaiba brothers, relieved they weren't hurt. However, he bore terrible news for the Kaibas.

Kaiba Corp had been completely taken over. It no longer belonged to Seto Kaiba.

* * *

On board one of Kaiba's helicopters, the Kaiba brothers wondered over the sudden loss of their company.

"Does our company belong to Dartz now then?" Mokuba asked. "I don't get it. How could one person be able to buy every single share of Kaiba Corp without us knowing about it? The network should have detected it."

"There's only one way I can think of," Kaiba replied. "Someone must have hacked into our accounts."

"But how did they get past your security system?" Tea asked. Kaiba's security system was the best in the world, created and updated by genius, Seto Kaiba himself. Kaiba snorted.

"We're obviously dealing with a very powerful organisation here," he replied.

"But sir…" Roland protested.

"Save it," Kaiba muttered sourly. "I'm not your boss anymore."

"No sir!" a second worker of Kaiba's protested. "I'll stand beside you until Kaiba Corp is yours once more." Roland agreed with him, as did Mokuba. It showed that even though Kaiba was so cold to everyone, he did have faithful and able people working for him, besides his own brother Mokuba. He wouldn't admit to it though.

"Well? What are we waiting for?" Kaiba said. His brother and workers knew that was the nicest thing they would get from him at the moment.

"We must get to the museum and decipher those ruins," Yami stated. Kaiba nodded.

"My team is already there, and my security force will handle any unexpected guests," he said. Efrona stared at him, unnoticed. What the heck, when did he have the time to send out his men?

The pilot suddenly messaged Kaiba, and told him there was an emergency message for him. Kaiba opened his laptop, and a voice message opened. "We're ready to upload the images of the undersea ruins, sir," the male voice said. Joey and Yami's eyes widened at realising that Kaiba had got his team at the museum _much_ earlier than they thought.

"You made sure your team got there before Dartz-!" Yami started.

"What did you expect?" Mokuba asked, smiling smugly. "My brother is always one step ahead of everyone else."

The data was uploaded successfully, but then voices began coming through, shouting, and crashes in the background too. The link suddenly cut off. "Oh well," Kaiba muttered. "At least we got what we needed." He grudgingly sent the data to Rebecca via another link. Yami talked to her, since Kaiba would _never_ lower himself to talk with someone who adored Yugi.

"My grandpa's looking at the data now," Rebecca told Yami.

"Alright. We'll meet up as soon as possible," Yami said. "And Rebecca…I'm sorry."

Rebecca's face scrunched for a moment, but her grandfather put a hand on her shoulder. "You can't blame the Pharaoh for what happened to Yugi," he chided gently. "There's too much at stake for hard feelings. We're all fighting a common enemy, and this data might be our only hope." Rebecca slowly nodded her head.

"You're right, grandpa," she sighed. Professor Hawkins took over the conversation.

"The quality of the images is worse than I thought. Unless we clear up the photos, I won't be able to read much," he said. Kaiba heard.

"Set a course for Kaiba Corp headquarters," he ordered his pilot, and endured the shocked stares of 'Yugi' and his friends. Dartz must have taken over there by then.

"The only way we can clean up the images in time is to use the Kaiba Corp computers. We have no choice," he explained.

"Yes. We must stop these criminals before they make their next move. We have no time to lose," Yami agreed. Kaiba glanced at him, seeing the determination which he had lacked in their video call, just after he lost to Rafael.

"You're more gung-ho then I expected. Considering you lost your title and all," he remarked. Yami's face darkened.

"This fight is about much more than a championship duelling title! The whole world is in danger!" he exclaimed.

"Blah, blah, blah. Don't you get tired of making the same speech every time you face a challenge? Stop saving the world and get a hobby," Kaiba replied. Yami ignored him and went back to the video call with Rebecca.

"We'll meet you at the pier." He closed the call, and looked out the window. The colourful lights which he had noticed before faintly lit the sky, were now stronger. What did it mean?

Efrona suddenly stiffened as she heard the legendary dragons hiss in her mind link. She winced, and Yami looked at her, concerned. She shook her head.

"It's nothing-I hope," she muttered, and turned away a little before he could notice her second wince as the dragons hissed again. They were only this riled when in battle-on a duel monsters playing field-or when they felt the presence of the Orichalcos. Usually they met both circumstances, but this time, since they weren't on a playing field, then it meant the Orichalcos presence was stirring.

Things were about to get worse.

* * *

Dartz sat in his business office, feeling rather smug. "Finally, after ten thousand years, the Leviathan is ready to return! But in order to reach its full potential, there are several souls that must still be offered."

He turned to Rafael, who was kneeling respectfully on the floor. "Take a good look at the view screen," he told him. On the screen was a view of a wall, with many engravings of people on it. People captured by the Orichalcos. Slowly, Alister appeared on a blank spot. "Ah well, he is better off where he is now, where his energy will help fuel the great beast."

The scene changed to Kaiba's helicopter, flying across the night sky. "The Pharaoh and his friends will be arriving shortly. I trust you will give them a warm welcome," Dartz said, but his tone and smile held implications the exact opposite to his words. Rafael nodded.

"The Pharaoh won't escape me this time," he promised. Quickly, he left to set out for his mission.

Dartz waited until he could no longer hear Rafael's footsteps, and then faced the view screen. "Time for phase two."

The screen lifted up, revealing a secret chamber behind it. The room was large but dim, the faint lighting coming from hundreds, maybe thousands of candles scattered across the floor. Dartz walked in between the candles, smiling faintly. "Each soul must be utilised so the Leviathan can cross over," he murmured. He began his spell of summoning, smirking all the while. Efrona was wrong-everything he planned for was about to succeed.

Meanwhile, the Big Ben struck one in the morning, in London city. A teenage boy farewelled his friends, and started his walk home, knowing his parents would be angry, but he didn't care. He was grown up, and no one would dare to attack him. He was strong, after all.

Something glinted on the ground ahead of him. He bent down and picked it up, admiring its shining surface. "Someone must have dropped it."

Suddenly, a beam shot out from the sky and struck the tiny stone in his hand. He screamed and threw the glowing stone away from him. But not far enough. The Seal of Orichalcos formed around the stone, and his eyes boggled as a hideous creature, three or four times his height and certainly more in bulk, climbed out of the Seal. It reached a hand for him, and his scream echoed through the city.

This performance of an Orichalcos soldier climbing out of the Seal was repeated all over the world, as stones fell like rain in many cities. Orichalcos soldiers began roaming the streets. It was their time to collect souls for the Leviathan, while their master Dartz prepared for the Chosen Duellists arrival.

* * *

The gang hurried off Kaiba's helicopter and greeted Professor Hawkins, Rebecca and Duke. Kaiba and Mokuba followed more slowly. After all, it was only reluctantly that he was half working with the dweeb patrol.

Rebecca immediately ran up to the Pharaoh. "Is there any word about Yugi?" she demanded. "We have to find him. If we don't get him back, I'll never forgive you! And we need him to fight these guys." She was only concerned, and missed her 'boyfriend'. Yami understood.

"I miss Yugi too, Rebecca. And I promise, we will rescue him," he vowed to her. "But we must go to Kaiba Corp first."

"I want to come along to, for tech support," Rebecca insisted. Kaiba snorted.

"This isn't some field trip, but you can tag along if you want," he said. He turned, and strode away, raising his voice so it carried behind him. "I don't know about you geeks, but I have a company to save. Whoever's coming with me, let's move."

"Good luck!" Tea told Yami, and he nodded and ran after Kaiba. Tristan pulled at Tea and Efrona's shoulders. "Come on, we better tell the police what's going on."

"I doubt they could help, but we could try," Efrona mumbled, and they ran off in the opposite direction to the other two.

Meanwhile, Kaiba and Yami had managed to climb down a manhole, undetected, and now were running through a labyrinth of underground tunnels, apparently a short cut to Kaiba's central computer. Kaiba slotted his key card into a scanner on the wall, and the doors they stood before opened-it was an elevator. They hurried in. "If Dartz's brute squad is guarding the area, they'll never see us go inside."

They waited impatiently for the elevator to reach their wanted floor, but it had only risen upwards by a few metres before something smashed through the ceiling of the elevator. A strange creature dropped through the hole it made, and crashed through another wall, running off. Kaiba and Yami stared, and then Kaiba turned and smashed the controls of the elevator. "I don't know what that was, but I'm not staying to find out." The two men forced the doors open and stepped out, only to be greeted with a hallway of…monsters?

"These aren't holograms Kaiba," Yami warned. Kaiba couldn't really scoff at him at the moment, because he was surrounded by real enough looking monsters. However, he still rebuked.

"You must be insane! These things can't be real." Yami sighed.

"A doorway has been opened, and monsters from a parallel universe have entered our realm." He smirked grimly. "Unless you have a better explanation."

"I still think you're nuts," Kaiba replied. "But this isn't the time to argue." Both summoned monsters and sent them charging into the mass of monsters, clearing their way.

* * *

"I'm telling you, there's a motor cycle gang going around stealing people's souls with a magic card!" Tristan fumed, but the police only laughed.

"You kids watch too many cartoons," he told him, Tea and Efrona.

"We're serious, these guys are trying to take over the world!" Tea insisted. The cop next to the one that spoke to them smirked.

"Does the so-called gang wear a symbol like this?" he asked, and lifted his cap, to reveal the Seal glowing on his forehead! The three teenagers stumbled back and turned to run, but a green stone flew over their heads and landed on the ground in front of them. The Seal formed, and an Orichalcos soldier climbed out and faced them. Tea gasped-it was the same thing that duelled against the Pharaoh!

It lifted a massive hand and swiped at them, but Efrona shoved them to the side, and pushed them towards an alley. "You two go and get away from here as fast as you can. I'll deal with this."

"No! We can't leave you here, we're going together," Tea said, grabbing the younger girl's arm. Efrona smiled gently and detached herself from Tea's grip.

"Hey, don't worry about me. Besides, it's time I started one of my own personal jobs. I'll explain what it is later, along with answering any other questions you've put aside so far. Thank you so much for being patient with me, but please be patient a little longer. Now you two go, before that thing decides to attack the two of you."

"It should have attacked by now, actually," Tristan said, glancing at the stock still Orichalcos soldier. "Why hasn't it? Not that it's a bad thing."

"Because it recognises me, but it won't hesitate for much longer. Go!" Efrona said, and nudged them down the alley. They hesitated for only half a second, nodded, and then ran. Efrona turned to face the Orichalcos soldier.

"Okay, I know there's still light somewhere in you, master or goddess, and I'm going to set it free," Efrona muttered, and dodged an attack made by the soldier. She flew up, summoning a small ball of light in her hands and sending it into the vision of the creature, blinding it for a few seconds. She used those moments to fly up behind it, and place her palm on the glowing Seal on its forehead.

A twining vine of light began from under the place her palm rested, wrapping itself quickly around the form of the soldier, until it was completely covered and cocooned. It screamed, thrashing, but Efrona didn't let go, practically sitting on its shoulder so her hand would leave the spot. Her eyes shut, and sweat beaded her brow. It had to be so damn hard to break through the darkness, didn't it?

A small burst of light, and the vine of light which had cocooned the Orichalcos soldier shattered. Inside though, was not an Orichalcos soldier, but a spectral form. The form was someone who looked human, but was wearing strange clothes, a cape, loose trousers and a loose shirt, all in white. There were small coloured marking between his brows, and underneath the corners of his eyes.

"Thank you…Belldandy? No, but you look a little like her," the man remarked. Efrona smiled.

"I am her lover's descendant. It had been many millennia since…your world, the Heavens, has died. It is time for you to move on into the dimension of dreams and memories. Go and rest eternally, master," she murmured, and bowed. The spectral form put a hand on her shoulder.

"Do not bow, because that should be something I do to you, descendant of Keiichi. Thank you for setting me free," he said softly, and faded. He would join the apprentices, goddesses and masters who had not survived the wave of deaths when Atlantis had fallen, and Ictracyl destroyed. He would be free from the darkness which had clouded him for ages.

Efrona smiled. 'Belldandy, I swear that all of your people will be free. This master was just the first.' She flew off into the night, searching for those poor souls who had been twisted. Their time of eternal rest was coming.

* * *

Please review! They would be much appreciated!


	19. Chapter 18

I am sorry to those who thought this chapter would be out sooner. I was meaning to get it out last week, but I was so busy doing other stuff, and when I had free time I was either tired or just didn't have the inspiration to type. It's back now, but I think this chapter isn't as good as others. Oh well, I'm always paranoid about my own writing, so I hope this pleases all you readers!

Thank you **The Duelist's Heiress**, **Miorochi**, **Ray-nee-chan** and **Koragirl** for their reviews! I have been inspired to keep going by them. (Yeah, I'm saying corny stuff.)

* * *

Desperately Kaiba and the Pharaoh sprinted down the corridors, their summoned monsters guarding their backs from attacking Orichalcos monsters. They halted before a locked door. Kaiba swiped his key card in, but to their dismay, it wouldn't open-someone had reprogrammed the code. And even worse, their monsters were destroyed in the next onslaught of monsters. They were trapped and surrounded.

"Need some help?" a female voice, recognised to be Rebecca's, asked cockily through the intercom. The doors slid open, and the two men dashed through. The doors slammed shut behind them. "Good thing I tagged along on your _field trip_, Kaiba. When this is all over, let me know if you want an upgrade of your system," Rebecca continued smugly. Kaiba didn't bother to reply. He and Yami sprinted ahead, through several doors, with Rebecca hacking into each code and opening the doors for them. Finally, they made it to the central computer.

Kaiba confirmed his identity to the central computer, and then shut down and rebooted it with the back up. He inserted the disk he carried containing the images from the ancient ruins. Immediately information began to pile on the screen, which he sorted through with speedily. It wouldn't be wise to stay longer than necessary.

The images reached Rebecca on her laptop, and her grandfather immediately began translating them. "After its ten thousand year long slumber, the black serpent will swallow the sun, and then paradise will rule once more," he read. Duke blinked.

"Nice work, but what does that mean?" he asked. The Professor frowned.

"Paradise must be Atlantis," he replied.

Kaiba looked closely at an insignia that had come up with a spread of information. It looked familiar to him. He managed to coax out some information about the company which the insignia belonged to. One called Paradias, which is said to control a small piece of every company in the world.

"Oh no, it's them! The president of Paradias is Dartz," Kaiba hissed. Yami recognised the picture of the businessman Dartz t also be the one who had fought against Ironheart in the battle of Atlantis in the vision he received, passed on from Efrona. 'But how can the same man who fought a war ten thousand years ago be the president of a modern corporation?'

The computer screen suddenly blacked out; at the same time they lost contact with Rebecca. A voice cackled around them. "You're so close yet so far…"

From a ledge higher up, Dartz appeared, perched atop the serpentine creature Yami recognised from the visions. "Thank you for coming to me. You've made my job so much easier," Dartz smirked. Kaiba and Yami scowled.

"What do you want?" Yami snapped. The smug smirk never left Dartz's face.

"It should be obvious. You're the Chosen duellists aren't you? Then prove it," he taunted.

"I don't need to prove anything to you," Kaiba said furiously. "Give me back my company."

"Give back the souls you took," Yami added his own furious demand. Dartz didn't bat an eyelid.

"You're in no position to make demands."

"I'll make a deal with you then," Yami said, and activated his duel disk. "Duel us. And if we win, you must release the imprisoned at once." Kaiba joined in, and both summoned their legendary dragons. Critias and Timaeus appeared and roared at Dartz.

Dartz merely taunted the dragons though, and as they were about to attack, he and his serpentine monster disappeared. His words were left behind though- "The ancient battle continues, and soon your souls will be mine. For now, farewell."

"Come back here Dartz!" Yami yelled, to late.

Monsters broke through the doors, and began to fill the room. The ones that wouldn't hesitate to rip Kaiba or him to shreds. Kaiba ran for the elevator, calling Yami to follow. They rode up to the roof and dashed across it, being chased by monsters. Close to the edge, Kaiba warned Yami, "Get ready to jump! I trusted you, now you trust me."

They leapt off the edge, and landed in the cockpit of the Blue Eyes White Dragon jet! Unfortunately, the jet was attacked by one of the monsters with a fireball, and they were sent spiralling to the ground. The two managed to clamber out, unscathed.

Explosions lit up around the Kaiba Corp building, and from inside as well. Kaiba hissed as he watched the building being assaulted. "I won't let Dartz take my company apart."

Yami looked up at the sky, and saw the faint shadow of Dartz' serpentine creature pass over it. "We've got bigger things to worry about."

* * *

Efrona muttered inaudibly under her breath as she soared through the sky, above buildings. She had managed to return quite a few twisted 'angel folk' back to their original minds, free of the darkness which had clouded them for so long. She was pleased, but at the same time a little daunted. She knew full well that she had barely put a scratch into the amount of 'angels' she had to free.

The most effective way of freeing all the 'angels' was for the Pharaoh to defeat Dartz, but she wasn't used to leaving things. If she could do something herself, she would try. So she had. And many angels had somehow identified her to Belldandy. How, she didn't really know. She didn't even control the same element type Belldandy did. When she questioned a few of the angels she set free curiously, they had said it was her expression. Her determined expression and Belldandy's one were apparently similar. Hey, she wouldn't dispute it. Efrona just didn't have the energy to. It was energy draining to try and break through the dark haze over each twisted 'angel's' mind.

Efrona was broken out of her thoughts when she caught sight of a familiar brunette girl in the middle of the road she was flying close to. 'Tea? I thought she would be with Rebecca and everyone.' She blinked and landed on the ground further down the road. She ran up to Tea. "Tea? Are you alright? Where are Joey and Tristan?"

Tea nearly hugged Efrona on the spot, relieved at seeing a familiar face, never mind that she was slightly different from an ordinary person. "Efrona! I'm fine, but Joey went running off somewhere, and Tristan ran after Joey."

"We'll find them, but we should get back to Professor Hawkins and Rebecca first. Joey and Tristan might have gone past it. Come on, I saw it up this way!" Efrona said, and the two ran towards the mobile home.

* * *

"Big brother!" Mokuba cried, and he ran towards his brother and Yami, who were walking towards the mobile home. He hugged his brother in relief. "I was worried about you for a second."

"We're fine Mokuba," Kaiba said. He added to everyone else, "Now that I know who I'm after, it's time to crash their party."

"We'd better act fast, because Joey ran off to find these Paradias guys on his own," Rebecca worried. Uneasiness for his friend entered into Yami's grim expression.

"We'd better get there before Joey does," he murmured. Kaiba snorted.

"Wheeler had better not screw this up for me."

"Guys!" a voice called, and Tea and Efrona ran down the street towards them. They two girls and the group exchanged relieved greetings, before Tea reported what she saw as she ran around the city-the same monster they saw after the Pharaoh and Yugi's duel in the godforsaken desert was now roaming the city, by the dozens.

"How about we all just jump in my car and go away?" Duke asked nervously. He had glimpsed the giant hulking monsters, it was impossible not to have since they were rampaging all over the city.

Light footsteps made the whole group turn, and they saw Professor Hawkins walk out of the trailer. "I'm afraid things are even worse than we imagined. According to the evening news, thousands of people around the world are suddenly collapsing in the streets."

"It's those monsters," Tea said immediately, worried.

"They must be using the power of the Orichalcos to capture people's souls," Rebecca added. Tea finished on a half-panicked note.

"Did I mention that every police officer in town is under its spell too?"

"All right we have to battle these monsters on our own, and find our way to Dartz," Yami said grimly.

Efrona bit her lip as she looked down. She wanted to find more Orichalcos soldiers herself and reform, but she wouldn't make much of a dent herself, as only the Pharaoh could save all the lingering angels, and she didn't think she had the mental strength at the moment to reform more. Also the fact no one knew Joey's whereabouts worried her. She couldn't do anything though-her link with the dragon Hermos was sending forbidding emotions which told her not to look for Joey.

'Joey, I'd look for you to make sure you aren't in trouble, but Hermos is telling me to let you do whatever he's doing. Please be okay Joey.'

* * *

Valon stopped his motorbike in an empty parking lot, and dismounting it, waited for the person who had been chasing him through the streets of the city. He wasn't disappointed-a few seconds later, Joey Wheeler caught up on his own 'borrowed' motorbike. Joey stopped his bike and dismounted as well.

"All right then, let's get down to business," Valon began.

"I want Mai back," Joey demanded.

"Mai has a mind of her own."

"She did, before you lot brainwashed her!" Joey replied furiously. Valon denied it.

"Mai wasn't brainwashed. She joined us of her own free will. She was sick of taking the backseat while you got all the fame. Then I stepped in and changed all that."

"You messed with her head! She was one of my best friends, but the last time I saw her, she was sayin things dat normal Mai would never have said."

"_I'm sick of my life, so I chose to change it…" _Joey remembered Mai saying it when they were duelling at Industrial Illusions.

"I led you here to get rid of you for good," Valon explained. "Mai can't be happy with you around. You're a constant reminder of what her life used to be, and she wants to forget all that." In his thoughts though, he added, 'I know that deep down, Mai still loves you, and I can't have that.'

He activated his duel disk, challenging Joey to a duel. Joey accepted. "I never back down from a challenge, especially when I'm fightin for a friend."

* * *

The Hawkins' trailer sped across the road, Duke driving it at a crazily fast speed through the abandoned streets. Inside everyone was close to the laptop Rebecca was working on. "We're close to Paradias headquarters," she said. Mokuba smiled.

"We'll have our company back in no time," he told his big brother. Kaiba wasn't as positive as his brother.

"I'm not so sure. We're dealing with an extremely powerful organization, and it's going to take everything we have to bring them down."

Efrona wondered away and peered out the front window of the trailer over Duke's shoulder. He inhaled sharply, as he nearly let go of the steering wheel. Efrona yelled beside him, "Pull over!" He slammed his brake instinctively at her voice, and the trailer screeched to a stop, knocking all of the people inside over. Efrona wrenched the car door open and leapt out in a flash.

Regaining their bearings, everyone rushed outside to see what the problem was. They saw Tristan on his lower back, after having fallen, and Efrona trying to shield his vulnerable moment from an Orichalcos soldier looming over them. She hesitated, and, unnoticed except for Yami, her clenched hands glowed white light. The light was also noticed by the Orichalcos beast, and it hesitated. Yami seized the opportunity, and sent his Celtic Guardian to destroy it. They rushed to Tristan's side.

"Thanks Pharaoh, Efrona. I could have taken it myself though," Tristan said, with a slightly injured pride, but Yami shook his head.

"I'm afraid what would have been taken was your soul," he said.

"Hey, where's Joey?" Tea asked. She thought Joey would be with Tristan at least.

"He hopped on some guy's motorcycle and took off after one of Dartz's flunkies," Tristan explained.

"Was it Valon?" Rebecca enquired. "Not only does he have a thing against Joey, he's got a deck full of monsters I've never seen before." Yami knew his friend was rash, and if Valon were to extend a challenge, Joey would accept. His soul would be in danger if the Seal of Orichalcos was played.

"We've got to find Joey before it's too late."

Efrona gasped suddenly, becoming rigid beside Kaiba. Kaiba looked around, and inwardly cursed at his inattention. He activated his duel disk, grabbing the others' attention. "We have bigger problems," he said. Orichalcos soldiers surrounded them, and were edging closer to them, forcing their group more tightly together. More were coming out of buildings and from other streets.

"Maybe we can outrun them," Rebecca said uncertainly, but Tristan immediately put down the idea.

"I already tried that."

Kaiba and Yami stepped forward, as defence between the beasts and friends, or in Kaiba's case, brother. "Wait, brother! It's too dangerous!" Mokuba called in alarm, but Kaiba was far less worried.

"There's nothing dangerous about a bunch of holograms," he said, and both he and Yami summoned out their legendary dragons. Both dragons immediately began destroying the Orichalcos soldiers closest to the group and their owners.

Within minutes all of the attacking soldiers were gone. Tea turned a critical eye on Tristan and Duke who had 'disappeared' at the exact moment the Orichalcos soldiers had begun attacking. "And where have you two been?"

"We tried to lead those things away. By running really far," Tristan and Duke said with sheepish grins. Efrona coughed softly.

Kaiba abruptly turned and began to walk away. Tea called out curiously to him, but he didn't turn back.

"If you think just because I helped chase off some holograms, I'm now part of your little pep squad, you've got the wrong idea. Adios, it's been a real blast."

"Will you at least help us find Joey?" Yami called out.

"Use your heads. There's a simple way to find that loser if you think about it," Kaiba replied, never breaking stride. Mokuba chased after him faithfully.

"He's nice. He could have at least helped us with hacking into a satellite or something," Efrona commented sarcastically. Rebecca snapped her fingers.

"That's it! We can use the satellite system to track Joey's duel disk!" Rebecca cried, and raced back into the trailer. The gang realised that without the code for the satellite system, they wouldn't be able to access it! They called out to Kaiba, to no avail. He ignored them, eventually turning a corner, and they had to give up.

Meanwhile, Rebecca was on her laptop, furiously trying to hack into the Kaiba Corp satellite system. Her grandfather watched behind her, rather proud at her skill. He believed she could do it.

'I hacked into his system once, and I'll do it again!' Rebecca thought.

"What'll we do if Rebecca can't crack the code and track down Joey?" Tea asked anxiously.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Duke replied.

"We've got to have a little faith," Tristan added. Efrona smiled slightly.

A few minutes later…

"Any luck?" Tristan asked, pacing. Tea sighed.

"You've asked that five times," she reminded. Duke also reminded him of his words.

"Yeah man, you're the one that told us to have a little faith." Tristan snapped a little.

"Get off my back. Joey's in trouble, and if we don't move fast, things could get worse. This is my fault. When Joey and I got separated from you guys, Joey told me about his plan. I should have talked him out of it then." Tristan remembered the conversation he and Joey had while walking along the train tracks, each taking turns carrying Weevil's soulless form.

* * *

_Too hot and tired to try and create small talk, Joey and Tristan walked along the train tracks, Weevil slung across Joey's shoulders. The two had too much sympathy to just leave the boy behind in a bloody hot desert._

_Joey suddenly stopped, and announced, "I just figured it all out. Mai must have teamed up with those lowlifes because I'm a terrible friend." There was no need to say who those 'lowlifes' were._

"_You're crazy," Tristan said, but nothing could shake the notion out of Joey's head._

"_Dartz may be the one who brainwashed her, but I'm the one who drove her away in the first place."_

_Like a lamp that had just been rekindled, Joey regained his usual vigour and took off sprinting down the tracks. "I've got to set things straight, by finding those guys and breaking their spell!"_

_Tristan watched him run, bemused. "How are you planning to do that?" he asked to thin air._

* * *

"What was I thinking? How could I let Joey do this?" Tristan ranted, more to himself than anyone. Guilt wormed at his mind. Maybe he could have done something to change what happened now.

"You know, Joey does have a mind of his own," Tea said, trying to calm him.

"Let's hope Joey's using it," Yami murmured. His friend's tendency to be rash sometimes could lead to fatal consequences.

Something twinged at the back of Efrona's mind. She gasped involuntarily, feeling the anticipating triumph of Hermos. The anticipation felt at being drawn, ready to go into the action. She had felt it a few times, but not so strongly. It meant Joey had strong emotion for the purpose of his duel.

Everyone looked at her funny. She looked back uncertainly. Should she tell them or not? Hermos had told her not to. To hell with it, they had a right to know if she knew. Joey could be in danger!

"Joey's in a duel and Hermos was just drawn," Efrona reported quietly.

"I can't wait around anymore!" Tristan exploded. "Joey needs our help, and he needs it now!"

"Chill, Tristan," Tea murmured, but there was worry glinting in her eyes. Duke agreed with her words.

"Tea's right. Without Kaiba's tracking system, we have no hope of finding Joey." Tristan couldn't contain his worry.

"But Joey might be losing his soul as we speak!"

"Should we just go look for him?" Tea wondered. As they spoke, Efrona quickly slipped away. While everyone else was focused on worrying for Joey and being half mad with impatience, she would try and fly over the city. No need to make a big scene about her search.

"Wait a little longer," Yami said, stamping down his own impatience. "We have to give Rebecca a chance to find him. Until then, I have faith Joey can take care of himself."

Rebecca burst out from the doorway, flapping around a large map. "I found him! According to the readout, he's not far."

Yami took the map from her, and asked for the rest of the group to move the trailer and themselves to a safer place, while he tracked down Joey. He turned to go, but protests stopped him.

"Hold it Pharaoh! You're not going alone!" Tea said firmly. Tristan agreed, saying they were in it together. Yami started, and then nodded, thanking them.

"Let's go," he said, but Rebecca cleared her throat, indicating her desire to go with them. Yami shook his head though, and asked Duke to take care of her and the professor.

"But-!" Rebecca cried, but her grandfather stopped her.

"No Rebecca. We need your talents here."

"As soon as Joey's safe, we'll find Yugi. I promise you, he'll be alright," Yami vowed to her. Rebecca sighed, defeated.

"Go kick some Dartz butt!" Duke said with a thumb up, and watched with the professor and Rebecca as the trio ran off into the night. Professor Hawkins put a hand on his granddaughter's shoulder comfortingly.

"Yugi will be back safe and sound. I have faith in the Pharaoh, and you should too," he said gently.

'Rebecca's having a hard time forgiving the Pharaoh for what happened to Yugi. She must think he'll be tempted by evil again. We'll just have to hope she's wrong.'

* * *

Hermos roared as he was summoned onto the field. Joey and Valon faced each other in their fatal duel-whoever lost would lose their soul, but it seemed each was more focused on trying to gain Mai's love, or at least affection, by getting rid of the other in the duel. Valon smiled at the legendary dragon facing him.

"It's about time! I've been waiting for this. Now I can finally prove my strength. No monster's too strong for my armour!" Indicating the great defensive and offensive armour he wore.

* * *

A few streets away, Yami, Tea and Tristan had paused uncertain where to go next and glancing at the confusing lines on the map. They weren't too far from where Joey was.

The Eye of Timaeus card in Yami's deck suddenly started glowing. Yami drew it out, and gazed at it. He was certain that Hermos had been summoned, explaining why his, and probably Kaiba's legendary dragon cards were glowing.

The trio began running again, but one thought would not leave his already worried mind. Why had his dragon card stopped glowing?

* * *

Mai arrived at the duel between Joey and Valon, seeing the two teenagers in strange armour. She dismounted her motorbike and came forward so they were aware of her presence. Valon greeted her.

"You're just in time to catch the end of the greatest duel ever played," he told her, smirking.

"We had a deal Valon!" Mai snapped angrily, as she walked to the Seal's barrier. "Wheeler was mine! You've done enough, so why don't you take a hike and let me finish this?"

"Nah, I'm having way too much fun to stop now," Valon replied. "Plus, too much is at stake, and I won't let you risk losing everything you have. That's why I challenged Wheeler in the first place. To protect you. I wanted to get rid of him so you'd be able to move on with your life, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Well guess what? I'm fighting for the same reason," Joey interrupted in a steely voice. Valon snickered.

"Well then, get on with it!" he said, indicating Joey to make his move.

Joey merely put one card face down and ended his turn. Valon strengthened his fearsome armour even further, and made to attack Joey, but was stopped by his face down, Scapegoat. His second attack caused him to lose his armour, due to Joey's counterattack, and he was flung into the air, and then fell to the ground, a few metres behind his original spot. He still had some life points remaining, so he was still in the game. He ended his turn.

Joey attacked, but fell into one of Valon's traps, and as a result his armour was destroyed. It was his turn to be flung backwards, and slowly recover. He knew then what Valon had felt when he himself had destroyed the tanned duellist's armour. Both were rather weak and gasping for breath. The duel was close to the end-each duellist could only stand a few attacks at most.

'So this is it,' Mai thought, enraptured with the duel despite herself. 'They're both one attack away from defeat. In the next round, one of them will be trapped by the Seal forever.'

* * *

It's school holidays now, which means I have more free time to work on my stories. Hopefully I'll get more done than usual. And yes, I am in school.

Reviews would be much appreciated. Please?


	20. Chapter 19

Hiya everyone! I'm so glad I finished this chapter, I had it half done, but it just sat in my computer for days, while I lost the inspiration for this story. Buts it's back now-nothing keeps me down from my stories for long, which is a good thing. I'm liable to give up on things a lot, but I don't think this story will be one of them. :)

Thank you **Miorochi** and **Koragirl** for their reviews! You're both very kind!

* * *

Yami, Tea and Tristan ran down the street, searching desperately for Joey before something bad happened to him. Tea suddenly halted and told the other two to hold on.

"There's no time to rest. Joey could be duelling that Valon guy right now. If we don't hurry, Joey could be one soul short," Tristan said.

"That's why I stopped," Tea replied. "According to the map, Joey should be nearby. We need to stop running and start looking down each street." She noticed Yami was again staring at his legendary dragon card, with a slightly disturbed look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure," he replied. "But a moment ago, I could sense the presence of Joey's legendary dragon. Now it's gone, and I'm afraid Joey's dragon was destroyed."

"Does that mean Joey's lost?" Tristan asked, worried. Tea shook her head in disbelief, but Yami wouldn't give the same type of positive answer.

"We can't be sure until we find him." The trio dashed down the street again, redoubling their efforts. They didn't get far though, because they saw a vortex of light rising up from among closely packed buildings. Yami looked at his Timaeus card again. It was glowing.

By chance, he tilted his head back slightly, and noticed a shadow moving in the night sky. Looking closely, he could make out a small human body, with hair streaming behind the figure as it sped towards the light. A flash of moonlight upon rather bluish forelocks gave the identity of the person flying. Yami looked at his Timaeus card, and suddenly sprinted in the direction of the light, along with Efrona.

"This way!" he called to Tea and Tristan. They sprinted after him, rather confused.

* * *

Joey and Valon stood facing each other, panting from exhaustion. As for the duel, Joey was the worse for wear out of the two, with only 200 life points, while Valon had 900. Joey was impressed that Valon had managed to escape defeat, but there was no way he would admit that. "I don't know how you got yourself out of that last attack, but I only needed to attack one more time to take you down. Too many people are counting on me to let you walk away with a victory."

"Well, you won't walk away with this one," Valon replied. "It looks like you can barely stand, let alone walk. And there's someone counting on my victory."

"They're stubborn about protecting you," a voice said just beside Mai. Mai nearly jumped, and looked left to see one Yugi's friends, she had been beside Yugi at the duel in Industrial Illusions. She didn't bother to give a reply to the blue fringed girl.

'These numbskulls think that they're going to save me by winning.' Mai thought. Her thoughts hardened. 'But I don't need to be saved. All I need is my victory over Wheeler.' The Seal of Orichalcos burned on her forehead, and she put a hand over it, wincing. Efrona pretended not to see, but knew what it meant. The Seal's influence was being contradicted by Mai's old affection for Joey.

"I want to keep my armour, so I'll have to give up half my life points," Joey said, and the armour that had just been destroyed came back to him. "Then I'll set two cards face down and end my turn."

Valon brought back Psychic Armour Head, and by use of a magic card, also brought back four other pieces of the armour he wore before-Burning Knuckle, Jet Gauntlet, Over Boost and Active Guard. Joey didn't look too fazed. He used one of his face downs, Graverobber and took Big Bang Blow from Valon's graveyard. Using his second face down and a whole lot of dependence on the Heart of the Cards, he brought back Hermos. He merged together Hermos and Valon's taken piece to create Big Bang Dragon Blow. The move shocked and impressed Valon.

'Just when I think Wheeler's at the end of his rope, he comes back with something like this!' he thought. 'I've never fought a duel like this in my life. Wheeler's pushing me to be my best. That'll make my victory more rewarding.'

The two waged outright war on battle of the armours. Both lunged forward with their fists raised. The two fists met at the centre in fearsome blasts of power that created a blinding white light.

"You can't win," Joey grunted. "I have the power of my dragon behind me."

"You're pretty good," Valon replied. "But not good enough. I'm afraid it's all over."

"You wish," Joey snapped, but half heartedly. It had been a good duel.

"A draw…!" Efrona breathed, and that was what Mai was thinking exactly. But no way was Joey going to let it rest at a draw.

"It's time to activate Big Bang Dragon Blow's special effect! I sacrifice Red Eyes Black Dragon!"

The sacrifice made Joey's fist even more powerful. Roaring, Joey smashed his fist forward with all his strength, and finally managed to shove Valon backwards. Stumbling back, Valon's armour disappeared, as did all the various cards played on the field. Joey had won.

Valon looked at Joey. "You won," he said, with a hint of mild shock. Then, to Joey's surprise, Valon congratulated him. He looked at Mai afterwards, and sadly made his farewell. Mai gasped, and instinctively half raised an arm. "This is my fault," she gasped. For a few minutes, the influence of the Orichalcos vanished.

"Don't be silly," Valon chided. "I caused my own downfall. I thought that if I won, I could make you forget about Joey Wheeler. But now I understand why he meant so much to you. The guy's got heart."

Mai ran to him, but stopped at the Seal's barrier, which had shrunk around him. Valon looked from her to Joey. "It's up to you now to save Mai." With those words, he collapsed to the ground, his soul taken.

Mai knelt beside Valon's still form and raised his body into her arms, calling for him to come back. She hadn't realised until that moment how much Valon had sacrificed for her. The fact he did it for her made her touched, sad and angry all at once. And true to what Valon said, the two had actually had some similarities. They were two lonely and misunderstood people.

"We'll get him back," Joey said to Mai softly. Slowly, Mai laid Valon's body on the ground, head bowed.

"How…how could he do this? He's the one who told me to duel for myself. Then he turns around and fights you to protect me! …How pathetic," she said, and her tone became a sneer at the end. Her lips tilted upwards into a smirk. "He deserved this."

Joey was rather stunned at Mai's sudden one-eighty of attitude. He immediately came to Valon's defence. "Valon realised what he told you was wrong. He found out what duelling was really about. Determination and heart. He fought like a true duellist today."

Mai slowly stood up and turned to face him. The Seal glowed on her forehead, her eyes narrowed. "I thought you wanted to destroy Valon."

"He may've been annoying, but no one deserves to get their soul taken away," Joey protested. He looked carefully at Mai, taking in the hard, red tinged eyes, the Seal on her forehead, the anger and bitterness that she had displayed to him at Industrial Illusions back on her face. He sighed.

"I realise something now," he said. "As long as the Orichalcos thing has a control over your brain, I'll never be able to talk any sense into you. The only way I can save you now, is to duel you." Mai cocked her head a little, unimpressed.

"So you've beaten this loser-"she indicated Valon, and Efrona hurriedly moved out of the conflict while she checked him-"Now it's gone to your head? Why else would you be dumb enough to challenge me to a duel? You should have learned your lesson from our last duel."

Joey activated his duel disk. "The only way I can get through to you is to duel you," he rephrased slightly. Mai glared at him viciously and activated her own duel disk.

Efrona worried for Joey. While Mai was still fresh, and completely up for a duel, Joey was in really bad physical shape. She could even tell from the distance she was at, having dragged Valon's body out of the way of the duel. Could Joey even finish the duel?

Being gentlemanly, Joey told Mai to go first. She glared at him coldly. "Big mistake," she snapped. She summoned Cyber Harpie and ended her turn.

Joey's arm shook as he drew his card. Only then did he realise how badly exhausted he was. As he summoned Blue Flame Swordsman, his eyes briefly went out of focus, and everything went slightly fuzzy. 'I'm so weak I can't even see straight! But no matter what, I have to stay on my feet and finish the duel.'

"Please Joey; you can't duel in your condition! You might pass out any second," Efrona cried. She turned to Mai. "Don't you care if he passes out? He might faint halfway through the duel."

"No way. I'm not sleepin until I finish this duel. Don't worry so much for Joey Wheeler," Joey said with a reassuring smile towards her. He turned back to Mai, who was unimpressed by the exchange. "Your turn."

"At least be very careful about you," Efrona murmured.

"You'd better not be taking it easy on me again," Mai told him. "I want a real duel!"

"This is a real duel," Joey replied. "No one's going easy on anybody-in fact, I'm duelling you with all my heart and soul. It's de only way to save you."

"Try saving yourself. I'm doing just fine by myself. If you cramp my style, you'll end up in a world of hurt."

"I understand everything now. You forgot what duelling was about, so I'm here to remind ya about the Heart of the Cards." Mai looked disgusted.

"If you're here to teach me a lesson on duel monsters, you're wasting your time, and wasting mine."

Mai summoned another Cyber Harpie, then played the magic card Arrow Nail, increasing the newly summoned Cyber Harpie's attack points. It destroyed the Blue Flame Swordsman, but in Flame Swordsman, the original of it, came in its place. Joey challenged Mai to attack again with her other Harpie, but she wasn't going to do so. They were equal on attack points and would destroy each other. She put a card face down and finished her turn.

Joey was desperately trying to think up a strategy. Mai had the advantage in the duel so far, with two monsters on the field and a face down. The face down worried him. He suspected it was Harpie Lady Sparrow Formation, the little annoyance that stopped him from attacking. He wondered whether he really wanted to go full out on her, but remembering how going soft at Industrial Illusions didn't work, he decided he would give her want she wanted. A challenging duel.

He sacrificed Flame Swordsman to summon Cyber-Tech Alligator, and used it to destroy the equipped Harpie. Mai laughed; finally convinced he would giver her proper duel. Unfortunately for Joey, the points Arrow Nail gave to the destroyed Harpie transferred to the one still on the field. Joey set a card face down and finished.

Mai drew, and smirked. "I drew it."

The Seal of Orichalcos spread on the field.

After the Seal, it became less of a monster duel, and more of a duel of emotions. Joey was trying to break through the bitterness and anger clouding Mai's mind, while she fought to keep the black cloud. But at the same time, a spark of her old, hardy but kind self was fighting to break through in her mind. So while fending off Joey's comments, she was fighting herself. And Joey realised this. Some moments of the duel, she seemed to return almost to her old self, the person he knew from Battle City.

He wondered throughout the whole duel after the Seal was played, how long he would last. He realised he would pass out soon, because his vision blurred more often, and his hands were shaking. He could barely slot cards into his deck. And even if he kept telling himself he had to pull through the duel, a small part of him, the instinct he gained from street fighting a few years ago, told him he wasn't going to last for much longer. And it was right.

Mai held up a card. One more attack, and it was over. Joey would be gone, and she could move on. For some reason, the idea was…lonely….

She remembered Joey catching her when that bastard movie star Jean Claude Magnum tried to kidnap her, but she had fallen, and clung to a flag pole. He had helped her. And he had stood in front of her, during her duel in Battle City against Marik, to protect her from the god card Ra's attack. Their farewell after Battle City, shortly before her nightmares and emptiness started, was sweet.

A crying roar at the back of her head from Hermos made Efrona shoot to her feet from the kneeling position she had beside Valon. "Joey!" At the same time, Joey smiled at Mai, knowing his time was up.

"Congratulations Mai. You win," he said, and fell back, too exhausted to stand. Mai's eyes widened, and her old self burst through the cloud around her mind. She sprinted to him, scattering her cards, and caught Joey before he met the ground. Her hands were rather trembling themselves.

"You're wrong," she told him desperately. "I didn't attack, so you didn't lose the duel."

"I'm too exhausted to finish," Joey said.

"I won't let the Seal take you," she tried to promise to him, but he shook his head weakly.

"It's too late, I already lost the duel." He sent a small smile at her. "I'm just glad that if one of us had to lose our souls, it didn't have to be you Mai."

As the Seal closed in around the two of them, Joey said, "That was one of the greatest duels I ever fought. Thanks Mai." He mustered all his remaining strength and shoved her out of the Seal, snatching the Orichalcos shard off hr neck. As Mai stumbled back, shocked, the stone shattered into oblivion. She was free. Joey, satisfied in that knowledge, let himself go. The Seal disappeared, and his body fell limply to the ground. The Hermos card he had in his hand fell from his fingers.

In disbelief he was gone; Mai fell beside Joey and held him in her arms. Tears of grief rose to her eyes.

"This is my fault. I was angry and confused and blamed it all on Joey, so I tried to get rid of him. How could I be so selfish?! He was the only one who ever cared about me." She buried her head in his shoulder, letting the tears come hidden. "You were the only friend I ever had, and how did I repay you? By leaving you for a madman who promised me _power_."

Something was placed into her hands by a set of other pale fingers. Mai looked up, and saw Efrona place Hermos in her hand. "You have his heart, in a figurative sense. Why not a literal one too?" the dark haired girl murmured. Her fists clenched in her lap. Why couldn't she have helped? She had power, but she couldn't use them to help. It was ridiculous to her. Yet the trick she played at the Pharaoh's duel with Rafael was a one off, that only worked once.

Mai suddenly stood up. "The only way to fix this is to meet Dartz, face to face," she said. Efrona looked at the determined blonde female carefully.

"There's no convincing you out of it, is there?" Efrona said quietly. A curt nod from the blonde answered her question. "Please be careful, Mai. Joey…he held you in high regard. He would say the same thing, if he actually agreed."

A small, humourless smile graced Mai's lips. "He wouldn't agree to what I'm doing. But he's always been protecting me; it's my turn to return the favour."

"I'll come…no, your look is saying you have to do this alone," Efrona said. Mai nodded, appreciating that the girl was perceptive, and knew when to draw the line.

"I gotta prove to Joey that I'm worthy to be his friend. If not in front of his eyes, I'm still carrying his 'heart'. Do you mind staying here? Those other friends of Joey's will be coming soon, if the friendship between them at Battle City was anything to go by."

"His friends are coming," Efrona agreed, remembering glimpsing the Pharaoh, Tea and Tristan on the streets, searching for their friend. "I'll stay. But are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be okay when I get Joey back," Mai said. She mounted her bike. She glanced at Efrona curiously for a moment though. "You know hun, we sound almost similar. You sound pretty lonely, and Joey's friends don't seem to be yours."

"Bad past. Sure you understand," the other girl replied with a bare trace of a smile. "I'll say this again, for Joey's sake. Be careful, wouldn't you?"

"Hun, when someone messes with me, it's them who should be careful," Mai said, and revving her engine, she sped down the road, towards Paradias Headquarters.

* * *

When Yami, Tea and Tristan finally arrived at the scene where Joey's duels had taken place, they found Efrona crouched near the limp bodies of Valon…and Joey. "He's gone," Efrona whispered hoarsely, and they knew exactly what she meant.

The trio gathered around Joey. Tea shook his shoulder desperately. "Come on Joey, please say something!" No response.

"I…I don't think he can," Yami said, shock and grief making his own words seem distant.

"Then it's true. The Orichalcos took his soul," Tea whispered. Tristan clenched his fists, then loosened one and put his hand on Joey's shoulder. He shook the fallen blonde duellist, harder than Tea had before, urging him to wake up. But there was still no response. Joey's soul was truly gone.

"When I get my hands on the person who did this, they'll wish they were never born!" Tristan snarled. Tea wondered on who it was as well, because it sure wasn't Valon. He was out himself.

"She already wishes she weren't born. She feels bad enough. He was too exhausted to finish the second duel. Stupid, I told him before that he was in bad shape. But he was determined to free his friend. You said he planned it for awhile Tristan. He succeeded, and Mai asked me to stay here and take care of these two boys," Efrona summarised disjointedly.

Yami kept staring at Joey's still form. Even though Mai had used the Orichalcos, there was only one person that could be blamed for Joey's loss, for the chaos, for all the trouble they had been through, and the pain he caused. His fists clenched at the thought of the man.

"He hides in his fortress while others do his dirty work," he hissed, enraged. "No more!" He dashed down the street, heading in the same direction as Mai.

"Wait!" Tea cried, as she, Efrona and Tristan together pulled up Joey. But the Pharaoh was already at the end of the street, turning. His speed increased when he saw the distant building of Paradias Headquarters in the sky ahead.

"This ends now, Dartz," he vowed.

* * *

They finally find Joey...after how long?! Ah well, the city is big, I'm guessing.

Please feel free to drop any comments!


	21. Chapter 20

My eyes are twitching from staring at a computer screen too often, if that's possible...ouch. But oh well, I was desperate to get this up! Juggling three stories around and updating each of them is hard!

For anyone who's reading my other story, Love Beyond Death, I have changed the title to Echoes. Liked the new title better, and it has a relation to the story itself. For anyone who hasn't read it, if you like retellings of YGO, I suggest it. The story doesn't focus on my OC too often in it.

I am skipping lots of duels, or huge chunks of duels in this story, because typing up duels gets a little frustrating after a while. I couldn't be bothered typing up duels that last forever...very sorry to those who enjoy whole duels. I have no idea how to duel and have never tried learning, so I simply don't have much of an interest in them either.

Thank you to **Miorochi**, **Koragirl** and **Ray-nee-chan** for their reviews! Love you all! :D

* * *

Yami entered the foyer of Paradias Headquarters, looking around the dark area. Malicious laughter startled him, but it didn't seem to come from anywhere. However, he recognised the laughter to be Dartz's.

I've been expecting you," the voice said.

The elevator indicated its descent by the floor numbers above it that lit up. It was coming down to the foyer. Yami tensed, preparing himself for whoever was coming down. He stepped closer to the elevator.

The doors opened, and Mai fell out, landing against him.

He supported her, shocked, and noticed a white feather drifting down from the top of the elevator. His eyes narrowed. Mai must have been in a duel-and lost.

Respectfully he placed her against the wall, next to the elevator, and then stepped inside himself. The doors slid shut behind him, and the elevator began to move up. Yami took his deck out of his pocket, looking at them with renewed determination. 'I must put an end to this.' He thought.

The elevator stopped at the roof, and the doors slid open. Yami stepped out, and was immediately greeted by Rafael. "It's about time you showed up for our rematch," Rafael announced with a grim smile.

"I'm here to see Dartz," Yami said impatiently, but Rafael didn't change his stance. A set of spectral wings appeared behind him, belonging to Guardian Iatos. Yami chose a different tactic to try and coax a reaction out. "Is Dartz so much of a coward, that he's sent you to do his battles for him?"

Rafael stepped forward. "You owe me something." Casually, he tossed the Pharaoh a card. Yami caught it, and gazed at it in shock. Rage stirred again at seeing Joey's Claw of Hermos card. He looked up and glared accusingly at Rafael. Though Efrona had said Joey lost to Mai. So how could Rafael have the card?

"Valentine beat Wheeler, and then I defeated her," Rafael shrugged.

"Wasn't Mai on your side?" Yami asked warily. Rafael snorted.

"I never trusted her, and it turns out I was right. After she took Wheeler's soul, she turned on us."

"_I've had enough of this world domination mumbo-jumbo, and I want out," Mai declared forcefully, seated across from Rafael. "It's time for Dartz to answer for what he made me do to Joey."_

"_It's my duty to protect Master Dartz," Rafael replied, and activated his duel disk. Mai did the same across from him. "Say goodbye to your soul."_

_No matter how noble Mai's intentions were, she lost under the crushing assurance Rafael had of his deck. The Seal closed around her._

"_I'm sorry Joey," she cried out. "I tried my best."_

_The Hermos card she held, to give her courage, slipped out of her fingers, and she slumped to the floor._

"_Your best wasn't good enough," Rafael said to the soulless body._

The hand Yami clutched the Hermos card in shook slightly. "This madness has got to stop," he said hoarsely. He looked up. "Think of how many innocent lives have been destroyed! You may be next."

"I don't care," Rafael replied indifferently. "I made a commitment to Dartz to help him save the planet from people like you. If keeping this promise means giving up my own soul, so be it. Even if I'm taken, I'll be doing my part, by giving the Great Leviathan the strength it needs to restore peace to the world."

"Wake up! Can't you see that Dartz is just using you for his own selfish needs? If you really want to save the world, you should stop fighting me and join me."

"As soon as the Great Beast is revived, your side will no longer exist. And all it needs is one more strong soul." Rafael looked up to the sky. Yami did the same and gasped.

A faint, ghostly form of the Great Beast trailed through the sky, putting out even the stars. "Oh no, it's true!" Yami breathed.

"Even as we speak," Rafael continued. "The Great Leviathan lurks in the shadows all over the Earth. And as soon as I defeat you, your soul will be offered to the Great Beast, giving it the strength it needs to fully cross over into this world."

All over the world, the shadow of the Great Leviathan, the Great Beast of legend, could be seen. You couldn't even see the clouds in the night sky-just spreading darkness, and sometimes a low hiss of anticipation.

* * *

Tea, Efrona and Tristan, carrying Joey on his back, dashed through the streets, in the direction Yami had been heading. They jumped back in shock when a car turned the corner at dangerously high speed and pulled up inches away from them. Mokuba and Kaiba exited the expensive looking car, and looked at them with mixed reactions.

"Great, it's the dork fest again," Kaiba muttered. He caught sight of Joey, unconscious, slung across Tristan's shoulders. "What happened to Wheeler? Did baby need a nap?"

"That's not funny," Tea said sharply.

Mokuba suddenly gasped, and backed away, behind the car. Kaiba looked at him questioningly, and in response, Mokuba pointed at a nearby alleyway.

Rats, rats with livid red eyes, dashed out of the alley towards them in an endless looking swarm. Tea and Tristan shrieked, backing away, and Efrona cringed, literally lifting her feet off the ground to float in the air. The rats were way too creepy looking. She clumsily attempted to stop Joey from slipping off Tristan's shoulders, but Kaiba had casually taken care of that.

"What are you waiting for? Get moving!" Kaiba barked at them, and they all sprinted for a higher place to stand. They leapt close to an apartment complex's fire escape and hauled themselves over it, just as the rats streamed down the street under them.

"I smell a rat, and his name is Dartz," Kaiba muttered.

When the group finally managed to make it to Paradias, unscathed, they found Mai's limp body resting near the elevator. Efrona knelt, finding it hard to keep her voice calm. She had witnessed Mai revving off into the distance, and she shakily wondered whether Mai's loss of soul was her fault, for not stopping the blonde. The only thing the others thought was that she lost her soul.

Having no choice but to leave Mai there, they took the elevator to the top floor, and were just in time to witness the Seal of Orichalcos form around Yami and Raphael. Good news-the Seal was played by Raphael, not Yami. Bad new-it was played in the first place. "We're too late," Tristan groaned.

'This changes everything.' Yami thought in worry. 'What has Raphael done?'

Raphael smirked, opening red tinted eyes. The Seal was glowing on his forehead.

* * *

Guardian Dreadscythe stood on Raphael's side of the field, while Dark Magician Girl stood on Yami's side of the field. According to Raphael, Yami was just stalling his defeat. Yami was still confident he could pull through the duel though, because of his belief in himself and the Heart of the Cards. Not even being reminded of using the Orichalcos could shake his faith. It served to remind him of Yugi, and make his determination stronger.

He drew. "This duel is far from over," he told Raphael. "I know firsthand what the Orichalcos does to a person's heart, and I can help. When Eatos was destroyed, you unleashed your anger on your other monsters. You let the Orichalcos feed on your rage, but this isn't who you really are. The darkness within you has taken control, and now you must face that darkness head on. It's the only way to save yourself."

"You're the one who needs saving," Raphael replied.

Yami held up a card. "This will force you to take a closer look at yourself. I play the magic card, Underworld Circle!"

Both monsters on either side of the field vanished, and the Seal of Orichalcos began to spin around them. Dark, thick mist clouded the inside of the Seal, covering the two duellists from sight. The onlookers couldn't see anything through the impenetrable smoky haze.

"I hope when the smoke clears, it'll be the Pharaoh who's still standing," Tea murmured.

Meanwhile, Yami found himself walking through a thick grey mist, with no idea where he was. Was it a vision generated by the Seal of Orichalcos?

He came across a brown dirt path that meandered through a field of graves. Recalling the effect of the card he played before though, which let them bring back monsters a duellist lost, he suspected he was in the card graveyard.

"This wasn't part of the plan," a voice said ahead of him. The fog thinned just enough to see Raphael's outline as he drew closer.

A figure suddenly dashed past them and both gasped. "That looks like you!" Yami exclaimed to Raphael. Raphael agreed, stunned, and tried to call out to the younger looking version of himself that had just run past. The younger Raphael just ignored his older self. Throwing caution to the wind, Raphael sprinted after his younger look alike. "Wait, it might be a trap!" Yami yelled, but ran after him.

After a few minutes, Raphael stopped by a row of gravestones, looking at them with a hint of familiarity in his eyes. As to Yami's statement of not knowing where they were, he disagreed. Raphael knew exactly where they were.

Laughter sounded behind them, and they turned around. The scene before them was of a younger Raphael and Dartz, on a rainy day.

"Dartz took me here once, to expose me to the truth," present Raphael murmured. "This must be the day we met."

Dartz was speaking to the younger form of Raphael. "Remember, life is cruel, and the sooner you learn that, the sooner you can start over. Since the accident, your family has forgotten all about you. Your family has moved on, and you should as well. Just let them go."

In a puddle of water, a vision of how Raphael lost his younger brother and sister showed. Younger Raphael watched with renewed anguish. Dartz watched Raphael for a moment, and then continued, "I brought you here to bury your past and leave it all behind. Today is the day you begin your new life. Do as I say, and the pain will be gone. I am your family now."

Silently, Raphael nodded, eyes lowered.

"There is one final task you must perform. You must tunnel into the ground and unearth your destiny," Dartz said, and indicated a spot near the graves. "Use the anger inside yourself as a guide. Focus on the pain of your past, and you will find the tools to build your future."

Young Raphael began to dig at the place Raphael indicated with his own bare hands, a little hesitant. Yami shook his head at the scene, trying to figure out the point. "I don't understand. What are you looking for?" he asked present Raphael, but the one beside him was gazing transfixed at the actions of his younger self.

His digging became more frantic as the pit he made deepened with each passing moment. Just as Yami was about to repeat his question, young Raphael unearthed what he was digging for. A duel disk, of the same design as the one Raphael presently used. Young Raphael reached out a hand to pick it up, but suddenly Guardian Eatos was floating before him. Younger Raphael hesitated. At some encouragement from Dartz though, he picked up the duel disk and slid it onto his arm.

He drew a card from the deck placed in the duel disk-the Seal of Orichalcos. "Activate it," Dartz encouraged. "Then your transformation will be complete."

Younger Raphael activated it, and the Seal formed around him. He groaned in pain, struggling with the sudden darkness that had surged into his mind. Dartz's voice broke into his confused thoughts. "Don't fight it! Let it set you free!"

The Seal formed on his forehead, and the light of the Orichalcos wrapped around Guardian Eatos. With a short screech, the monster burst into flames and sank into the pit younger Raphael had dug. Younger Raphael tried to run to his monster's aid, but Dartz stopped him. "No, you have a new guardian now."

Guardian Dreadscythe rose out of the pit, wielding its scythe. "Meet the guardian of darkness," Dartz introduced with a touch of amusement. "This creature was formed from the rage in your heart. Now your journey is over. Welcome to the family!" Dartz laughed.

The scene faded, leaving the present Raphael and Yami. "Do you now understand the brilliance of Master Dartz, who knows exactly how the world works, and how to save it?"

"If you are so loyal to Dartz," Yami asked, "Why do you disobey him? Dartz told you to let go of the past, but you stay loyal to your Guardians."

Raphael snorted. "You don't get it. Dartz was trying to help me move on."

"Dartz is a madman, and the only person he's helping is himself," Yami said firmly. The Seal glowed on Raphael's forehead.

"Master Dartz gave me the power I needed to survive, and now it's time to unleash it on you," he growled.

* * *

"They've been in that mist for a really long time," Efrona muttered, and curiously stepped closer to the Seal. "I think something even weirder than usual is happening in there."

"Then don't touch the Seal, it might be dangerous!" Tristan warned, but Efrona was already running a hand over the dome surface.

It was like being bombarded with shards of her memory, and none that she enjoyed. But then, not many shocking things that happened in her life were pleasant.

_The blood message written on a wall of her house, with her dead grandma beneath it._

_The decapitated bodies of her family around her. The stench of blood in her nostrils._

_The name…Akunadin._

Memories of surviving alone.

"_Leave me alone bastards!" Efrona snarled__, and struggled fiercely. She was surrounded by gang members on all sides, and two oafs had unbearably strong grasps on her arms. A gang member stepped forward, a silver switchblade glinting in hand._

"_You made us for idiots last time. You should have listened when we said we rule this city's streets, and we don't allow some nobody little bitch to beat us around," the teenager boy said, and plunged the switchblade towards her._

"Damn it!" Efrona gasped, stepping away. She clutched a hand to her stomach instinctively, where that switchblade had been headed, and shook her head furiously, stepping back next to Tea.

"What happened?" Tea asked in concern. Efrona shook her head, repressing any shivers that wanted to escape. Her voice came out a little shaky though, much to her frustration.

"Just showed some bad memories. Whatever's happening in there, it also involves showing memories. Somewhat like experiencing visions from the Millennium Necklace, which I think Ishizu Ishtar used to own." Efrona glanced at Kaiba's disbelieving face, and said nothing more. He thought she was insane as well, for believing in the supernatural.

The mist inside the Seal of Orichalcos cleared, revealing Yami and Raphael, both unscathed. Tea sighed in relief, and the duel continued as if nothing had happened.

It was the strangest turn of events, but Raphael ended up surrendering the duel in his own way. In the end, he used a magic card to bring back all of his Guardians, except the evil one Guardian Dreadscythe, and in doing so, deducted his life points to nothing. The Seal shrunk around him, and he collapsed to his knees.

As Raphael looked up, he saw a ghost of Guardian Eatos. Other monsters of his began appearing around itr, with the Seal of Orichalcos disappearing from their foreheads. The darkness was lifting from him, setting his monsters free.

To Raphael's shock, his little brother and sister appeared beside him and hugged him, chorusing, "We missed you big brother!" His parents appeared with the duel monsters' spirits, smiling at him proudly. Raphael looked up at the vision before his eyes tearfully

"This is a vision of what's inside my heart. Everyone I turned my back on is still here, and they'll always be with me." With that, he bowed his head.

The vision disappeared, just as the Orichalcos shard Raphael wore around his neck shattered. The Seal disappeared.

Surprisingly, Efrona was the first one there supporting him from collapsing weakly. He looked at her with mild confusion. Wasn't he meant to be soulless now?

"I still have my soul? And what are you doing here?" he said in confusion.

"Forgiveness goes a long way," Efrona replied with a shrug.

"And I would think you would hate me, for nearly strangling you," he said with a tiny smile.

"You're different now. And I can't say I bear a grudge on you for lashing out at the world the same way I did a few years before. By the way, does Dartz know who I am really?"

Raphael nodded.

"He knows your former identity, and did tell me, just in case I ran into you next time. He wanted to ask you a few things, including how you escaped his notice when you were younger. Guess he won't be getting any answers from me. I'm done with that threatening life."

"Good to hear. And just to let you know, you weren't the only survivor of that cruise. My father's best friend survived but didn't remember for ages. You might want to seek him out, and try and relaunch a search team again for any more survivors. He's Pramana Saroto."

He looked at her in surprise and gave a nod. She was giving him a starting point for the rebuilding of his life and giving him hope to at least find the bodies of his family, for a proper burial as he had wanted for a long time.

Yami and the others had reached him, and were rather shocked when Raphael lifted his head at them and stood up, still with his soul. Yami smiled and voiced his theory, which was the truth. "The Seal of Orichalcos is powered by the darkness within the person who plays it. But Rafael was able to conquer that darkness, so his soul was spared."

Suddenly, the building began to shake, and everyone nearly fell over. "What's going on?" Tristan cried.

Large cracks appeared along the walls and edges of the building. A giant crack went across the floor, which turned into a chasm, and the elevator collapsed. Chunks of wall fell into the expanding chasm, as the building structure began to collapse. Mokuba edged away from the chasm, being the closest to it, and Kaiba pulled his brother closer to him protectively.

"Mr Kaiba!" Someone called out, and a helicopter swooped overhead, landing on the helipad a staircase up.

"Come on!" Mokuba exclaimed, and everyone ran up the staircase and into the helicopter.

Yami was taking longer, as he struggled to help Raphael up the small staircase to the helicopter. Before they could make it to the top however, the staircase broke loose of its supports, and began to fall away from the building. At the same time, the helipad split open, and Roland shouted urgently to Kaiba that they needed to leave immediately!

Raphael pulled free from Yami and heaved him over the ledge, onto the helipad. The staircase fell, but Raphael himself managed to hold onto the ledge of the landing pad with one hand. Yami crouched dangerously close to the ledge, refusing to leave Raphael to possibly die.

Raphael dug his free hand into his pocket and pulled something out, tossing it to Yami. "You'll need this if you're planning to take out Dartz," he told the Pharaoh.

The helicopter took off, just in time. The landing pad collapsed far beneath the helicopter. The helicopter circled the collapsing building, looking for a safe spot close enough for Yami to jump in.

"Take my hand," Yami said rapidly, extending a hand for Raphael's free one, but Raphael shook his head.

"Go while you can," he said. At that moment, the bit of ledge he clung to broke, and he fell into the waiting rubble below.

"Raphael!" Yami shouted helplessly.

"Pharaoh!" a voice called behind him. The helicopter flew up to the edge of the building behind him. "Jump!" Tea cried.

Taking a running start, Yami jumped off the building and managed to land on the ramp of the helicopter in a crouch. He looked back at where he and Raphael had been.

The helicopter flew off, just as the rest of the building collapsed. In its place was a smaller, different building that looked a bit like a temple. A very eerie, sinister one.

"That must be what Paradias headquarters really looks like," Tristan commented.

* * *

Please review!


	22. Chapter 21

I am so sorry for the long wait! It's been what, almost two months, since I updated? I was so busy with exams, and then afterwards didn't have the motivation to type for awhile...okay, enough excuses. Let's just get on with the story.

My thanks to Miorochi, Koragirl, The Duelist's Heiress, Ray-nee-chan and SS-lover06 for their supportive reviews! And once again, I'm very sorry for not updating sooner!

* * *

Yami passed Kaiba what Raphael had given to him, just before he fell. It perked Kaiba's interest-a memory stick of some sort. He attached it to his PDA, and a global map appeared on the screen.

"Where's it lead?" Mokuba asked curiously.

"To Dartz's lair," Yami replied darkly. Kaiba tossed his PDA to Roland, and ordered him to follow the map to the coordinates.

* * *

Dartz's lair was a small temple like building sitting out atop an outcrop of an island. The flight there was turbulent, with violent storms slowing progress, as well as being intercepted by a squad of police, but the group made it. Stepping out of the helicopter, close to the temple, they gazed at the entrance to the building warily.

"We've arrived at the heart of evil," Yami muttered darkly.

"Do you always have to be so dramatic?" Kaiba asked, but even he was a little tense.

The group entered the temple, passing through the main hall. Towering, spiral pillars held the rood high above their heads, and the lighting was eerily dim. At the end of the main hall they stepped into a circular chamber, looking completely made out of tiles. At the end of the room was a huge carving of a three headed snake, jaws gaping.

Tristan noticed something odd about the tiled walls of the room. "What's with all the people chiselled in stone?" Tea looked closely around her, and gulped.

"They're not just people-look!"

On one tile the image of Mai was engraved. Another had Weevil on it. Yami's eyes widened as he spotted his partner's image amongst the millions of tiles in the room. He probably would have run forward, if Efrona had not tugged at his sleeve slightly to stop him. She glared at the snake carving, and drew everyone's attention there as well.

A burst of blue flame appeared in front of the statue, and extinguished just as suddenly as it had appeared. In its place was Dartz. He smirked at them, spreading his hand slightly. "Due to the carelessness of my employees, I'm the only one left," he said. Arrogance filtered his tone. Kaiba wouldn't put up with the infuriating attitude any longer than he really needed to.

"I want my company back, so cut the small talk," he snapped. Dartz just kept the small smirk on his face.

"You all want something, and I want your souls for the wall. I even have spots picked out," Dartz said mildly, and pointed. Three spots cleared next to Yugi's place on the wall.

'Three spots…?' Yami thought, but held back his questions. Kaiba glared at Dartz. "These party tricks don't scare me," he snorted. Yami demanded Dartz to release his friends, to no avail.

"I'm afraid that's not possible. Their souls are already being put to use, supplying life energy to the most powerful beast that ever lived. My ten thousand year old collection is almost complete. Once I have your souls, then the beast can rise once more."

The time which Dartz had spent collecting souls registered to Yami. Horror rose in him. "If you have been collecting souls for all these years, how many lives have you destroyed?!"

"Millions," Dartz replied. His eyes flickered to Efrona briefly. "And…changed many more." Efrona nearly hissed at him, but kept quiet. It wasn't her fight anymore. The fate of the fight had been placed in the unknowing Pharaoh's hands.

"Look around," Dartz said, and suddenly torches flared up, illuminating the room. Every surface of the room was covered in tiles, each one etched with the image of a person. They covered the walls, the ceiling and floor. Many of the people carved wore odd clothes to them-Roman togas, turbans and old fashioned eighteenth century fashion. The carving themselves spoke of passing time.

"Ever since the Great Leviathan was laid to rest," Dartz explained. "I've been gathering all the energy necessary to refuel its rebirth." Kaiba scoffed at the words, and Dartz sighed, amused. "Duel me, and I'll make a believer out of you yet," the slippery man invited. He walked forward, and a duel disk materialised on his arm.

Kaiba finally agreed with Dartz on one matter. "We should stop talking and start duelling."

"You can't duel Dartz alone," Yami said firmly. "This lunatic is far too dangerous." Kaiba reluctantly agreed.

"That's fine," Dartz dismissed. "I'll duel you together, and get three souls for the price of one." Yami and Kaiba activated their duel disks.

"Three?" Yami asked, becoming irritated by the reference. There were only two duelling, what was Dartz trying to pull?

Dartz's smirk grew even more malicious. His eyes drew away from his opponents and to the audience behind them. Specifically, the girl with aquamarine eyes and a dark sapphire blue fringe of hair. "Surely the strength of the third person has already been demonstrated to you, Pharaoh? She broke through the Seal of Orichalcos, after all."

Efrona was suddenly confronted by several pairs of eyes. She fought the instinct to gulp. Yami rounded on Dartz angrily, determined not to let the man take anymore souls. "Leave her out of this. She's only innocent in this matter, like so many of the souls you've taken."

"Innocent? Pharaoh, I'm afraid she's the exact opposite of innocent. Isn't that right, Efrona Kwan? Or should I say…Elisa Kuria?"

Despite being prepared for this, Efrona felt her breath catch in her throat. No one had called her that for years, ever since she ran away from home. Her home, that became a house of haunting memories. She swallowed, and bowed her head when she felt the confused stares of those around her.

"How did you find out?" Efrona asked quietly. Tea put a hand on her shoulder.

"Efrona?" Tea asked softly. Efrona shook her head, and refused to look up. Her hair fell over her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry, for lying," she mumbled quietly. She mustered up some kind of courage, and looked up. She had the meekest expression ever seen on that face, for a girl that kept changing between a cheerful, playful teenage personality, and the persona of a serious girl who had seen and experienced many strange, interesting and potentially dangerous things in life.

She cleared her throat inaudibly, and glanced from Yami, to Kaiba, to Dartz. "In a way though, I'm honest. I lied about my past. My name is Efrona now-Elisa was my name before." She shook her head at her friends. "I can explain this later, when we're not all caught up in a life and death game." She glared at Dartz ferociously. "Stay out of my business, if you can't get the facts right. You don't know anything about me, even if you think you do."

Dartz raised an eyebrow at her, and remembered the visions she had sent him, to warn him not to continue his goal. She had sounded much older than the teenage girl standing behind the Pharaoh with his other friends. Even as she addressed him now, she still sounded like…a teenager.

If he were a lesser person, he would have been frustrated at letting himself worry a little over a mere girl.

"Very well," Dartz said. He raised his duel disk, and looked at his opponents. It wouldn't hurt to let them be a little curious of the girl. He sensed power from her, but she wouldn't be able to use it for anything. It was no longer her fight. "Kaiba, this may not concern you, but it may interest you to know that this girl hacked into your precious KaibaCorp's system. As for you Pharaoh, she is linked somewhat to you. Just information you two might like to know.

"Now, let the duel begin."

* * *

_There's not much more to say there. It was a hard duel for the Pharaoh and for Kaiba-Kaiba's soul was taken halfway through it. However, the Pharaoh won the duel in the end; with skill I can't even imagine having. No wonder, in the end, my own fight for the former people of the Heavens was taken out of my hands, and into his._

_That was the end of the duel, basically, but not the end of the fight. After getting back Yugi's (the Pharaoh's partner, not himself), Joey's and Kaiba's souls back, they glanced at the portal which had opened at the spot which Dartz had stood at before for the duel. He had vanished at the conclusion of it. Yugi switched places with Yami, and he, Joey and Kaiba went through the portal. I felt out of place beforehand, with the happy reunions around me, so I had already gone through before them._

_The Pharaoh sent me a questioning look when he and his companions arrived at the other side of the portal-Atlantis. I still could not answer any of his questions, since at that time Dartz suddenly reappeared, melded with that monster he so worshipped, the Leviathan. I hate snakes, and a giant snake was something I did not take well to. I think I surprised the Pharaoh by twitching-yes; I'm a teenager as well as a girl out of the ordinary, give me a break. I'm not as brave as him…I envy him for that._

_Dartz, while __merged with the Leviathan, attacked us. Joey, Kaiba and the Pharaoh set up monsters, including the three legendary knight (dragons) to block just the first attack, but all the monsters, save for the three knights, were destroyed. The three duellists didn't know it, but the only reason their knights were still standing was through the magic they borrowed from me._

_Suddenly, the sky was illuminated in colourful lights. Like a war army from the gods, duel monsters rained down, attacking the Leviathan/Dartz. The three duellists against the beast sent out more monsters to help._

_However, the Leviathan easily defeated the offending small duel monsters. Spikes shot out of its back, killing monsters that were unfortunate enough to be close to it. It sent a blast of power at the three legendary knights. That was when their tolerance for attacks ended, and they were destroyed. They snapped their contact from me at the last second, so as not to drain me to the point of fainting. Idiots, they should not concern themselves with my welfare so much._

_Tendrils from the Leviathan snatched up the three duellists and pulled them to it. I flew off before one could touch me, but neither Dartz nor the beast was paying much attention to me-they were more concerned about eliminating the duellists first._

_I saw Joey and Kaiba being…sucked through…the skin of the Leviathan. But just before they sunk through, a golden spark came from each of them, and flew towards the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh was barely visible, the only thing keeping him from sinking was his wedged duel disk. Gradually, more golden sparks began zooming towards him, first a trickle, and then wave upon wave of them._

_The Pharaoh was calling, rallying the strength of the captured souls to aid him. This was the point when I lost physical awareness of myself, and seemed to become a spirit, soaring for him as well. This happening I would try and figure out later. At the moment my mind was lost in what I was seeing._

_My mind plunged through the surface of the Leviathan, seeking the Pharaoh's sinking form. Finding him, I dove at his Millennium Puzzle, making it glow, and all the golden balls which surrounded him dove at the Millennium Puzzle also. The Pharaoh began to summon the Egyptian gods!_

_The summoning broke him and his two companions free of the Leviathan, and they landed back where they started, on the little outcrop of land they had been fighting the Leviathan from before. The Egyptian gods and the Leviathan/Dartz soared into the skies. My adrenaline-pumped vision took me with the Egyptian gods, and I was a witness for the battle against the Egyptian gods and the Leviathan. The Egyptian gods won, of course. I found my vision back in my body, instead of through the eyes of…a soaring bird? _

_The Leviathan fell into the ocean, and free souls manifested all around in the sky. I saw Mai and Valon talking, and I saw Rafael speaking to a group of people with a bittersweet smile on his face._

_The spirits turned back into spheres of light and headed downwards, towards the ground, seeking out either an afterlife (maybe heaven) or to return to their bodies. Gratitude poured off their auras like rain, towards the Pharaoh. But if these spirits were released, where were the spirits of the people of the Heavens?_

_It didn't seem as if the fight was over. Kaiba and Joey headed back through the portal, but the Pharaoh hesitated at seeing Dartz, still standing not too far away from him, with the spirit of the Leviathan behind him. In order to protect the world, he accepted the attack that came from the Leviathan._

_The cry of pain he let out when the black whirlwind attack hit him made my hair stand on end. He was courageous…would it get him killed?_

_This was his fight though, and he was determined to prove that the rage and darkness in his heart was gone, or kept back at bay._

_Finally the whirlwind around him shrunk, and the dark clouds which covered the sky began to clear. As the first rays of sunlight pierced through the thick cover, the whirlwind vanished. The Pharaoh began to collapse, but was cau__ght supportively by his partner. The Pharaoh smiled reassuringly at Yugi, and stated he was fine. The Leviathan was gone. This fiasco was over. Even I felt lighter, though still I wondered why I could not see the spirits of the people I had attempted to free, before meeting the Pharaoh._

_I knelt by Dartz. The man who was unconscious before me at that moment was not the evil maniac who had been trying to destroy the world. This man was the one before the Orichalcos stone had tainted his mind. I shook his shoulder softly. "Please wake up, sir. There are people who wish to see you." He stirred, opening a pair of golden eyes instead of two different coloured ones. He looked up in confusion._

_A bright light flashed in the sky, and suddenly Ironheart, Chris and her wolf Sky walked towards Dartz. The three of them helped Dartz back to his feet.__ "I'm glad you're back father!" Chris exclaimed happily. (She was so childishly cute, I nearly giggled.)_

_Ironheart agreed with his granddaughter Chris, and gave credit for the return of his son's sanity to the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh and Yugi nodded, smiling, and slipped an arm in a brotherly way around each other. I barely managed to keep myself breathing. That easy camaraderie, I hadn't had that for so long…I was looking at something that seemed untouchable, out of my reach. Dartz smiled sympathetically and tilted his head, indicating I should follow the two boys._

_I thought they had forgotten I was there, until they both looked over their shoulder at me. "Come on Efrona, let's all go home," Yugi smiled. My eyes widened, and I raced forward towards them. I smiled at both of them hesitantly. To my astonishment, even the Pharaoh, who was suspicious of me, touched my shoulder, so that I drew level with their walking pace._

_I found myself walking through the portal with the Pharaoh and Yugi. I found…acceptance…?_

* * *

"Yugi…" a voice called. Yugi twitched, finding it hard to open his eyes. He was sleepy.

"Yugi, wake up," the voice insisted.

Yugi opened his eyes, and blinked up at the clear sky. He sat up, and saw Yami, in his spirit form, standing next to him. "Have any idea where we are?" Yugi asked him.

"It seems like we've washed up on shore, but I wonder how…?" Yami replied, but trailed off as he glanced to his right-so did Yugi. Efrona was standing not too far away, looking up at the sky expectantly. She was wet, but bright eyed. Almost like the first day she came to Domino High-cheerful.

She looked at them and smiled, waving. Taken aback, they shook off the odd feeling of déjà vu at her bright expression; they walked to Efrona, and gazed at the same direction she had been looking at.

A soft, colourful cloud of magic began to form in the sky. Emerging from the thin cloud were the three legendary knights and the Dark Magician Girl. Efrona slowly edged back, letting the two males near her be addressed.

"We are forever in your debt," Dark Magician Girl said, smiling at the two males. "You've saved the human world and our world, as well. The Dominion of the Beasts can once again flourish, and the legendary knights can continue to protect our land."

"I'm just glad that we could help," Yugi said. Timaeus stepped forward and extended his own thanks to Yugi and Yami. All three legendary knights promised not to forget them, and to honour their heroic deed.

"We couldn't have done it without all of you though. In the face of ultimate darkness, your courage sparked a light so strong, it will burn for all eternity," Yami said.

The three legendary knights nodded, and then turned to Efrona. "Thanks to you as well, for playing your part," they said. She nodded, and thanked them back, but gazed at them questioningly. There was something in their otherwise stoic expressions that had her believing they wanted to say more.

Surprisingly, Timaeus smiled. "It's been awhile since we have seen one of our own kind truly, honoured lady. Do not worry, your mission has already finished. The souls you wished to release are in peace now."

"Thank you," Efrona said again, after absorbing what he said in. How had he known? Well, maybe it just one of those mysterious things she was not meant to know. At least her three year's worth goal had been achieved. "But what do you mean by your own kind? Are you not with them already?"

Something like amusement glinted in the legendary knights' gazes. "We are their guardians. What makes us different from them is that we are not from the Dominion of the Beasts. We were once Masters."

Efrona went wide eyed. She gulped, gave a short bow, and then scuttled away a few centimetres. Even if she had never received any formal training in her magic, or that much education in the history of her magic, she recognised the title Master. Those three were from the Heavens? Those three were trained with her type of magic to completion?!

The knights seemed to understand that was her shocked farewell to them, and bade farewell to Yami and Yugi. They and the Dark Magician Girl drifted back up into the sky, fading from view. The Timaeus card Yugi had dissolved into the air.

That was also what happened to Kaiba's and Joey's legendary knight cards.

"You have a lot to explain, you know?" Yugi said to Efrona. His voice was light and friendly though. She looked at him, and then at the spectral form of the Pharaoh, much to the latter's shock.

"Yes, I can see you," she confirmed. "And yes, I owe you and your friends a long overdue explanation. Some things I can not or will not say, but I'll answer all your questions as best as I can."

A noise interrupted what Yugi was about to say. They looked up, and saw a KaibaCorp helicopter flying down towards them. Efrona pulled on a cheerful expression. "At least we know we're not going to be stranded here for who knows how long. Your friends must be worried about you."

Yugi didn't miss the way she said, "Your friends" instead of "our friends." She was distancing herself. He wouldn't let that go on for long, he promised.

The helicopter landed on the beach, and Yugi's friends raced out. Joey nearly bowled Yugi over, and then proceeded to give his friend a few hard noogies. "I'm never letting this spiky head out of my sight!"

"Is it really over?" Tea asked. Yugi, surrounded by his friends, nodded, smiling softly.

"Yeah, it's over. We're safe now."

Tea spotted Efrona, once again sulking just at the edge of the happy scene. She wondered why Efrona always did that, and decided it was high time to make the mysterious girl face the truth-she was included as a friend, despite whatever secrets she kept. Tea went and bopped Efrona over the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Efrona mumbled, rubbing her head.

"Stop sulking here so gloomily. We all want to get to know you, and probably might have been able to sooner, if you hadn't kept staying just out of the scene. You're our friend, and friends always include each other. I'm sure you know I'll go into a longer friendship speech if you don't cheer up!" Tea said to her privately, but with a smile.

"I'm not sulking! Not anymore anyway," Efrona protested. She paused, and then said slowly, "Let's go home _together_."

Tea got the hidden acceptance behind the words, and dragged Efrona towards the helicopter, following an excited Joey and amused Tristan. Turning her head back slightly, she caught sight of Yugi following, and then stopping, because the pharaoh had stopped. The Pharaoh was looking out at the sunset, eyes looking pensive. Efrona could tell he was dwelling on his past. It was a look she sometimes had on her own face, as she stared at her own reflection in a mirror.

It was not always a good thing to dwell on the past, or even too much on the future. Sometimes, the best thing to do was worry about the present.

"This adventure's all been about the past and the planned, doomed future. I think living in the present for a little while will be a relief!" Efrona chirped, grinning, at Tea. Her voice managed to carry behind her, and she hoped the Pharaoh heard that. That was her completely honest opinion.

The Pharaoh's lips turned upward a little as he followed Yugi, walking towards the helicopter. Yeah, he caught that. For someone he was suspicious of, she got her point across clearer than a gentle talking to.

He knew he could trust the sincerity and blunt honesty in her tone. She didn't know it, but her eyes shone a little brighter when she was being frank, than when she wore the mask of an upbeat teenager with an uncomplicated life.

_My life is far from uncomplicated. But right now I'll just live for the peaceful moment._

_

* * *

_There! It's a little longer than usual, though not by too much. I hope you reader's liked it.

Please review, and tell me what you think!


	23. Chapter 22

I'm back, with another chapter! For those people who think I have slowed down writing because I plan to ditch my fictions, think again. I may take a long time to update, or very quick, but I wll not abandon my fictions. If I do, it will be removed from this site. I will only leave complete fictions in sine I dislike fictions that have never been finished. No ending...

Anyway, thanks to **Koragirl**, **Miorochi** and **The Duelist's Heiress** for their kind reviews! 'Hands out virtual cookies, grinning insanely.'

Yeah, I'm on high. Thankfully actually-it's how I got this chapter done!

_Italics _in this chapter mean Efrona's tales of the past. Hopefully it is not too confusing.

**Warning:** Definitely T, for swearing.

* * *

"Okay, let's start with this. What's your name?"

"Efrona Kwan."

"You're lying again-you said you'd be honest."

"I am being honest."

Several exasperated sighs permeated through Yugi's living room.

Kaiba had reluctantly flown Yugi and his friends back to the city where Rebecca, her grandpa and Duke had been waiting. (Mokuba had pleaded to his brother to give them a ride back, and Kaiba, having a soft spot for Mokuba, _very_ reluctantly agreed.) Before they had gotten off the helicopter, Kaiba had given Efrona a cold, calculating look. She knew he would be digging into her records soon. It didn't bother her-he wouldn't find anything worth looking at anyway. Efrona's record was of a street girl turned respectable.

Once they had gotten back to the mobile home, they had decided to have a break and just have a small holiday in the state they were in. (There was also the fact that they would have to buy plane tickets home, and they were still looking for an airline to ride with.) Very soon after though, Mokuba had found them and invited them to a tournament Kaiba was hosting to promote his new KaibaLand theme park. Yugi and Joey were invited to participate in the tournament.

Of course, things did not work out as planned in the tournament. A rival of Kaiba's, by the name of Zigfried von Schroeder, had tried to sabotage Kaiba's tournament, to give Kaiba a bad name, and also attempted to destroy Kaiba's company, so he could have revenge over something that happened years ago between the two CEOs.

He did not succeed, since both Yugi and Kaiba stopped him. Yugi made his little brother, Leon, see that his brother's actions were not right, and in turn, Leon had pierced through his brother's thirst for revenge and gotten his brother to see that it wasn't Kaiba's fault that their company was in ruins.

After that little fiasco, they had gone back to Domino City (courtesy of Mokuba), saying goodbye to Duke, Rebecca and Professor Hawkins. For a week, they did nothing but eat and sleep. They really needed a rest after the chaos with Dartz and the strange KaibaLand tournament. Even Yami was glad for that period of rest. However, he and all the other members of their friendship group soon remembered there were some matters dealing with their newest member that needed to be resolved.

So here they were, in Yugi's living room, trying to get Efrona to give, straight, truthful answers to their questions. She had not gone past the first yet without raising an outcry.

"You know you can trust us, right?" Tea said. If she were standing up, she would have her hands on her hips.

Efrona sighed this time, and nervously clasped her hands together. "Yeah, I know. What I meant was that Efrona is my name now. It's been my name since I was twelve." She lapsed into a short, uneasy silence, wondering what to explain about herself and how.

"My name before I changed it was Elisa Kuria. I used to live in Australia."

Tristan whistled. "Wow, moved a long way." Joey was trying to work out where exactly on the world globe Australia was. Efrona couldn't help but giggle as his face screwed up in concentration.

"South East of Asia, Joey, in the Pacific Ocean," she reminded. "Next to New Zealand."

Joey pulled a face at her as the whole group either laughed or sighed at Joey. Tea looked at Efrona expectantly-she wouldn't be distracted from the matter at hand. Efrona shrugged and spread her hands helplessly. "I don't know what you want to know, so go ahead and keep asking questions."

"Well," Yugi said. "Did you move here when you were twelve?"

"Yeah. It was kind of hard to live in America at first, because I wasn't used to the currency or the measuring system, and the language was a little different, so school was a bit hard…it got better though," Efrona smiled.

"Any reason why you moved?" Tristan asked. Efrona's smile faded, and her happy expression slipped.

"Well…look, I'll try and tell you as much as I can, but there are some things I am not allowed to say, and some things that hurt too much to say aloud. You'll have to be patient with me, please."

"Why aren't you allowed?" Yugi asked. She flashed a look at the Millennium Puzzle, one that everyone caught, and she hesitated. Yugi switched with Yami.

"So Dartz was telling the truth, when he said you were somewhat linked to me?" Yami asked. Efrona nodded slowly.

"Yes, but the 'somewhat' bit is more like 'barely'. I'm sorry, but I don't think I should be saying anything about it, because you already have a destined path to getting your memories back. Sincerely, I would really like to help you though," she said. The Pharaoh looked disappointed for a moment at being refused information about his past, but then nodded. Efrona caught the look.

"All I will say is, you had enemies in your past, ones that still linger in this world, and probably will until you regain your memories. They will do anything to get rid of you, even if…innocent people are involved." She gave a pained smile. "I guess you could say I was caught in the crossfire."

Yami started. Would that mean…he was indirectly the cause of whatever pain Efrona had suffered? She had to have suffered something horrible; because the pain behind her smile was deep, and he had a feeling it was only a slight portion of her emotions.

Efrona caught his startled, almost horrified expression. "I shouldn't have told you anything," she grumbled. "Now you'll blame yourself, just like you blame yourself when your friends are in danger. What happened in my past wasn't your fault. Blame yourself, and no one in this room will get anything out of me."

With that, she proceeded to launch into a very…basic summary of her childhood.

_She had been a brat when she was a child, right up until she was twelve. She had been born in Indonesia, as had her parents and grandparents, but the rest of he heritage was Chinese.__ She had a little brother who had been born in Australia. Her life had been like any ordinary child's-happy, with the expected sibling fights, the childish railing against her parents when things did not turn out her way, etc._

"I look a lot different now from then," Efrona said confidentially. She smiled sheepishly. "I was even a little overweight, which is why I find it weird when Joey keeps commenting on me being too thin to attract guys."

Tea glared at Joey for that one, since Efrona couldn't bring herself to stir up any insulted feelings for it. The shorter girl was too soft sometimes.

"Anyway…" Efrona coughed, as Joey winced at Tea's dark glare.

_Everything changed during the time she was twelve. Her parents and little brother had left one night to visit family friends. Efrona__-no, Elisa-had stayed behind to do some school homework she had not finished. When she had finished, she went to look at her family's jewellery set, because she wanted to remember the sentimental value each one had, and because she was simply a girl who adored that type of thing at the time._

"I found these amongst the jewellery," Efrona said, and pushed the sleeve of her jacket up. She also flicked something that had been hiding under the collar of her shirt.

"It's the bracelet you showed me on the train," Yami observed. So it was, the intricately patterned bracelet studded with three, deep sky blue gems. However, he had not seen the necklace before.

The necklace chain was made of small, bright gold links. The pendant attached was a pearl somehow shaped into the detailed carving of a wolf. Efrona touched it, and the expression in her eyes was a mixture of gratitude and distaste.

"I think all of you know I have some weird power in me-you've either seen me fly, once crack through an Orichalcos barrier-which I could never do again-or control water." (She didn't mention also powering the magic circle where Yami duelled Yugi, or being reverting corrupted souls of the Heavens back to sane folks.) Efrona didn't give anyone time to let their jaws drop. "The bracelet is like a sort of family heirloom, I guess. My grandma bought it during a holiday in Egypt. It's like a key for my powers. Before I put it on, my powers had been dormant inside me and incomplete since part of my power was also sealed inside this bracelet. When I put it on, and put the necklace on, I couldn't take them off, because they had found their chosen owner, the one who would unleash the power which had been dormant for a long while."

Noticing the stares she was getting from her friends, Efrona laughed, letting the graveness in her voice momentarily slip away. "Sorry if this sounds like some corny fantasy and sci-fi novel."

Yugi, who had come out in corporeal form beside Yami, shook his head. "Hey, we're all used to strange things happening, and hearing about strange things. Between ancient Egypt and Atlantis, you don't have to feel weird about what you're saying." The Pharaoh held back a humourless chuckle, or his friends would think he was laughing at air.

Efrona smiled wryly and continued on, explaining about her bracelet. It didn't really have a power of its own, but it was used to help channel her powers into what she wanted. Just like when she broke through the Orichalcos Seal, she had focused her power through her bracelet and let it concentrate where she needed it-at her hand, wrist and arm. Also if she wanted to control water, she used it as a limiter, so she wouldn't use too much magic and end up creating a tsunami when she had aimed for a small wave.

"So what's the necklace for?" Tea asked. Efrona frowned slightly, fingering the pendant.

"This was made for me by a guide-someone who helped me in the beginning, a man named Celestine. He was a spirit who had come briefly to ease me into these new powers. He explained what the bracelet did, and gave me this necklace. It…helps me to track people in my dreams. That was what happened after you duelled your partner, in the place Ironheart showed you," Efrona said. "The spirits knew my necklace had that ability. They channelled it through me so memories of dreams I had could reach you.

She did not say anything about the necklace's other ability.

"I tried to warn Dartz several times, before things went way out of hand, to give up on collecting souls, and make him see that the Orichalcos was corrupting him. Didn't work, but I think it made him more uneasy to know that someone could track him so easily in his visions. I couldn't do much more to try and help with the whole fiasco," Efrona said apologetically. Everyone waved her apology aside-they doubted she could have done anything, even with her powers.

"Anyway, I'll get to explaining about my guide later. I just needed to clear up the matter of my magic first."

Efrona continued on with her story.

_She wasted that night away, when her family was out visiting friends, or so she thought. During that night, she had had a bad feeling in the bottom of her stomach, and later on she found out why._

_Later that night, a policeman came to her door, and told her that her family had died in a car crash. She had begged the police officer to take her to the scene of the accident, and the officer had agreed._

Efrona refused to describe anything from there to her friends-it was something she did not want them to imagine.

"They weren't my family though. It was like for a moment, an illusion had wavered from them, and I saw the faces of strangers instead, not my family. Because I was half in denial that night, I believed it immediately. Thank goodness for that…or maybe I would have liked the illusion better…"

_She had started ranting that the bodies found in the car crash couldn't possibly be her parents, despite record checks. People thought it was just denial. When she had begun screaming hysterically that there was no way in hell the people in the accident were her family, and started becoming violent towards __people who tried to soothe her, medics on the scene had thought she was going into a fit. They had tried to sedate her, but never got the chance to._

_This was where her powers noticeably came in handy. Suddenly, several water pipes in the district burst, sending a near tidal wave down the street she was in. They washed over everyone in a large, fearsome rush that might have been taken for a miniature tsunami. It disorientated everyone around her, but woke her up from her half-daze. She had quickly run away, and the water seemed to help her along by pushing gently at her back towards the direction of her house._

_She had never been an athlete, but that night, she ran non-stop to her house, which wasn't close when walking. Seeking refuge against the world that believed her family dead, she hid in her home, locking the door. Relief was short-lived though, when she realised her house was completely dark. When she tried to turn the lights on, they didn't work._

_Candles had suddenly lit up everywhere, and after that…was when…her personal hell began._

"Efrona…" Tea suddenly said, reaching out a motherly hand to touch her shoulder, but the shorter girl flinched. Unknowingly, her eyes had become duller, to the point it was almost storm blue-grey. In her mind, she was seeing her past again, reliving the horror and the pain she went through at seeing her real family ripped to pieces before her, and not being able to do anything about it. The agony when the very man-no, beast-who ripped up her family slowly and painfully, started his torture on her. All for her power, of which she wasn't truly aware she had that night.

Quickly Efrona closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She could feel the stares of her friends as they observed her with expressions of horror and alarm. By sheer will, she managed to compose her mind enough to look calm when she opened her eyes again. Her friends noticed in relief that her eyes weren't so dull anymore, and were back to their original pale sapphire blue colour. Surprisingly, a small smile graced her lips.

"After that, I didn't know what to do. I only thought of one thing, after…that torturer left. Flee, vanish, drop from existence and avoid my tormentor for the rest of my life. I couldn't give my family a proper funeral…but I tried to give them as much as I could. Then I packed up a few things and left the house.

"Unknowingly I had placed a barrier around the house, so no one could come in. I hope it still stands, but I know police were really puzzled the next day when they could come within the open front gates of the house. Scientists couldn't work out the invisible barrier stopping anyone from entering the grounds…

"The case closed the same year it was opened. My house was always watched, and no one saw me leave or enter the place since the night when I ran back home from the car crash scene. I was pronounced dead. That's when I moved countries and gave myself a new identity, from Elisa Kuria to Efrona Kwan. I kept the same initials, to remind myself I wasn't always…what I am now.

"For three years, I was always moving from town to town. That would be why I didn't want to make attachments, A.K.A friendships, with anyone. I didn't want to risk staying in one place for too long and having that murderer track me down. To the government-and KaibaCorp's system, amazingly-I was a warden of the state, whatever that is. But because I disguised my life thoroughly, no one came to check on me. My first year alone after moving to America was rough, because I was practically a homeless street punk. After I managed to get enough money from working jobs, I could rent places to stay at, and so on. The rest of the story is history."

Silence accompanied the ending of Efrona's long story. She sighed, glad to have finished, and waited for her friends' reactions.

All of them were shell-shocked. There was no indication when they first met her-the cheerful, somewhat playful teenage girl-that gave away any of the hardships she had faced in her life. She was happy, seemingly naïve, when in fact she was the very opposite. They had only just grasped how opposite she was from the innocent mask she hid behind.

This version of her life that she had told them was only a simplified version which toned down whatever she had experienced. Some of the worst things that happened to her she refused to even mention. How could a person go through so much, have survived for three years so silent and alone? Wouldn't that have been agony?

"You…haven't told anyone about yourself have you?" Joey asked after a while. Efrona nodded to that. She suddenly grinned.

"Sorry-I never told any of you that you would be friends with someone so unstable in life."

"Don't apologise for the circumstances you have been put through," Yami said, so quietly Efrona almost missed it. His eyes were trained on her, yet his thoughts were spinning. There was a horrible notion in his mind…

"That man, the one who has been the cause of your grief-he was one of my past enemies?"

Efrona paled, giving him his answer. She didn't think he would catch on so quickly. He would start going down the self blaming trail.

"And this man went after you for your power, so he could own it and use it to harm me?" Yami continued, his heart growing heavier. He already suspected the answer, but Efrona's hesitant nod clinched it.

He had known from the beginning that if his friends associated with him, with even his partner, Yugi, that they would be in some form of danger. They had chosen to stand by him and follow him on his adventures though despite danger, and nothing he could say could stop them from standing behind him and supporting him. Yet, Efrona, who he had only met recently, had suffered three years before they had met because of his unknown enemy's thirst for power.

There was nothing he could do to make up for her suffering, except keep her close and protect her as he protected his other, longer known friends now. If the man who had caused her to suffer came back, then he, the real target of the murderer's fury, would face this person, instead of letting Efrona suffer any further.

Apparently, the thought of protecting Efrona from anymore danger occurred to the other people in the room. Tea smiled at Efrona warmly. "Well hey, you're safe here. We'll all help you if you need it. Just ask, okay?"

"Um…" Efrona shifted uncomfortably.

"What Tea said," Joey threw in, and slung an arm across her shoulders. "We're all here for ya now, so try and relax. We're you're friends. Besides, if I see that creep who did all that to you-" he did a superman pose, arms bent upwards so his arm muscles would stick out-"than he's gonna get a whole heap of knuckle sandwiches, courtesy of Joey Wheeler!"

"All bark and no bite," Tristan commented smartly. Joey instantly whipped around.

"What did ya say?!"

The two broke into a scuffle right there. Everyone else in the room sweat-dropped.

"But they are honest. We're here for you, so if you need help or someone to talk to, we're all here," Yugi said. Yami nodded, but his eyes were conveying something else to Efrona. She hesitated, and then smiled, deciding to talk with the Pharaoh later.

"Hey, don't you all get sympathetic with me. I'm making myself too much of a tragic heroine in this. I had help from someone-my guide," Efrona reminded. She decided to explain him in a brief, short way.

"Celestine was actually the spirit of an important person at his origins, who was summoned to me because of the bracelet I put on. He explained to me about my powers and stuff. Also, a great deal about its history. Just to make things a little stranger, I'll say what he told me. I'm the incarnation of a person who was born in a civilisation that existed long before, and then alongside, Atlantis."

Movement stopped again in the room, and several pairs of eyes were suddenly staring at her again. Efrona shifted uncomfortable, but continued, "Each person in that civilisation had rank-she was a Goddess, someone fully trained in her powers and who held a great deal of respect from others.

"_She came to Atlantis on one of her…errands, and somehow ended up falling in love with a man there. So she stayed with him, until that tidal wave which wiped out Atlantis struck. Her powers enabled her to survive, but her lover died. She was distraught, obviously, and weeping for him, when she felt something was wrong in her place of origins. She went back, only to find destruction._

"_The place she came from, just like the Dominion of the Beasts relies on our world, relied on Atlantis. This place was peaceful…you might call it Heaven. When it was destroyed, somehow, most of the people who lived there died along with it. Most of the survivors though, went mad. They let grief consume them, and became twisted and corrupted. Most…ended up as more children of the Orichalcos._

"_My incarnation, Belldandy, was the only sane survivor out of the whole ordeal. She fled to our…dimension, you could say, and coincidently ended up in Egypt." _Yami looked at Efrona sharply, but she shook her head._ "It was probably around the time Pharaoh Narmer ruled. She ended up literally falling into the Nile, because she was too exhausted to continue flying in the air._

"_Her bracelet was originally some other form. She changed it into the form of a bracelet. Its true form is a staff. Whatever form it was in before, it would have drawn too much attention if she just left it like that, which was why she changed it to something less conspicuous. She didn't want anyone to try and use her staff, which might have had lingering traces on it and to make it usable for anyone, so she set a spell on it. Only a person with her lover's blood-any of his relations-could take the bracelet and unlock its secrets._

"_With that, Belldandy died in the Nile."_

"_The Egyptian gods had taken notice of who had died in the Nile, and because of her pure and powerful soul, blessed her with the ability to control water. She became the embodiment of the Nile, a daughter of the Nile god Hapi, and was sent to the place after death for her people._

"_Belldandy hadn't thought that anyone from Atlantis had survived the huge wave that had swept over it. She hadn't known that a distant relative of her lover's, who was just a baby girl, had survived because she had been put inside a waterproof basket and set afloat. Miraculously the baby had survived long enough for it to be washed up on the coast of Asia Minor-Ancient China. A kind woman found the baby girl and raised it as her own daughter._

"_Because of another spell Belldandy uttered before her death, she had also sent her powers to any of her lover's relatives who were alive. It became locked inside this baby girl's. When the baby girl grew up and had her own family, one girl child would always have the goddess' power locked in her. The power was waiting for the time when it would be needed again, specifically, to help free the other people who came from the place like heaven, who had become corrupt. So, the power just kept passing on."_

Efrona took a deep breath when she finished explanations, and let a faint smile rise to her lips.

"And I believe I just told you about the history of my ancestors as well as the origins of my guide. I talk too much."

Silence was thick in the room as everyone digested what she told them. Tristan finally let out a short whistle. "You really have a history attached to you, don't you, Happy Boo."

"Still the nick name?" Efrona asked.

"You're smiling after finishing telling a tragedy story. Just proves that the name suits," Tristan nodded solemnly. He lightly patted her back though. "Still, after all that talking, don't you feel just a bit lighter? You really did have a lot to say."

It was true Efrona had spoken a lot. Their meeting had started after lunch, and now it was getting dark. Tea glanced outside and gasped.

"Wow, it's getting late. I should be going now." She turned to Efrona. "You know where to call if you need some girl talk. Or if you need a pep talk on friendship." She winked, and Efrona's smile grew wider and more sincere.

"Thanks. Thanks to all of you for listening," the shorter girl said. She touched her eyes and was surprised to feel moisture in the corners. Had she been crying?

She hadn't cried since the death of her parents. She just hadn't had the time, or seen the opportune time, to cry. Discreetly she wiped the moisture in her eyes away, before anyone saw it.

"I should get going too," Tristan said, and so did Joey. The two boys, Tea and Efrona decided to travel out together-it was much safer. They bade a hasty farewell to Yugi and left for their homes.

"Pharaoh-er, Yami, you had better still not be blaming yourself for my sob story. If I had been blaming you, I would have hunted you down a long time ago and tried to kill you," Efrona muttered to the Millennium Puzzle, where Yami had retreated to, just before she left. She was sure the pharaoh heard-after all, Yugi had heard, and the Pharaoh knew most things Yugi heard and saw.

"We found out a lot about Efrona today," Yugi said to Yami within his mind. "No wonder she was being so secretive about herself for so long. I doubt many people would believe her life story, so she wouldn't have told anyone. It must have been hard for her."

"The past three years of her life have been hard on her," Yami said gravely. "She is a strong girl for coming this far."

'And she's still smiling and laughing, still sane. She is indeed strong in mind and heart,' he added to himself, letting a small smile drift to his face.

* * *

Yay! Another chapter finished!

The conclusion of the this arc of the story series is coming soon, I don't know in how may chapters, but soon. Thank you to those who have been reading this so far.

Feel free to review and give constructive criticism.


	24. Chapter 23

Wah! I can't believe I neglected this story for...how many months? I'm so sorry! I've had a stupid writer's block for awhile, and when I finally thought of how to continue this story, I didn't get enough time to type even! School is a killer-no more to say on that.

This story is nearing it's final chapter-at least for this part anyway. Part two will come soon after this is finished, hopefully. If I can get the next update in sooner then I put this one in, then I can finally start part two of Traces Through Time.

Oh, just as a side note, I have finished my story Siren's Honour, though the first ten chapters are a bit shaky. Maybe one day I'll sit down and redo some of it, but not at the moment. Also, I have started a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic. (For those who haven't read Rurouni Kenshin, read it! It's really good! Well, says the worshipper of this manga anyway... ^_^;) I havent updated it in awhile, but I quite like the beginning. If you read Rurouni Kenshin fanfiction, please check it out! It's called Tales of a Healing Soul.

Anyway, I should be quiet and let you readers read on with this chapter! Thank you to **Miorochi**, **The Duelist's Heiress** and **Koragirl** for their reviews! They are a great motivation.

* * *

_She walked down a damningly familiar street, dread twisting her stomach into knots. The night above her was black, and there was a heavy stillness around her. The houses that lined the street left and right were old, dusty and looked as if no one had lived in them for __years. Almost every house was for sale. It felt like a ghost town._

_She knew what to expect, yet still she felt as if this was the first time she dreamt of this. Doing a quick check of herself, she saw what she had come to expect. She was clothed in a too big white school blouse and a black and grey chequered skirt that fell past her knees. The skirt was meant to be shorter, but whoever designed her old school uniform didn't know how to size and proportion clothing properly. All the same, the slightly over-large uniform was familiar to Efrona, familiar to her childhood as Elisa._

_If she were to look herself in a mirror at that moment, she wouldn't be surprised to see dark brown eyes and completely black hair, instead of the dark aquamarine eyes and sapphire blue bangs she had grown accustomed to over the past three years. After all, this was a dream about her past. It was fitting she would be in her old twelve year old appearance._

_Her stomach churned as she remembered what this dream led to in the end._

"_Not again," she murmured aloud desperately. "I don't want this dream again…" But her legs moved forward, despite her mind screaming for her to run in the opposite direction._

_She finally stopped in front of a house. Like others, it too was unused looking, but it seemed newer then the rest, and the gates for it were wide open. She started across the driveway and up to the front door, which was covered in cobwebs. With trembling, reluctant fingers, she gave a slight push to the door, and it swung open with an eerie creak. She froze, refusing to come in, fighting against whatever was telling her to walk through the doorway, and into the darkness of the house. The stench of blood wafted from there, making her feel dizzy and sick._

_Suddenly, piercing screams rendered through the house, almost physically slamming into her. The screams were ones torn by anguish and pain and so utterly familiar-her own screams! She clapped her hands over her ears, but she could still hear those spine-chilling shrieks. She shut her eyes tightly. 'I don't hear anything, I don't see anything, this is just a nightmare-'_

_Something wrapped around her ankles. She gasped, opening her eyes, and looked down. A cry rose up into her throat, but never escaped her lips. Tendrils of shadows, so much like the magic of the Shadow Realm (and it probably was) was wrapped around her ankles._

_Something yanked at them, and they in turn yanked her to the floor. She fell with a terrified screech. Reason left her mind, panic completely took over. She clawed at the shadows, trying to tear herself free, but her fingers grasped at nothing solid but her own ankles. She screamed again, in despair this time, as the tendrils began to slowly drag her into the house which for her, was haunted by both good and very, very bad memories. She tried to stop being dragged into the almost tangible shadows of the house by scrabbling at the ground, but it was useless._

_She had had this nightmare quite a few times. It was one of the most common ways for her to dream about her bad memories. Each time, she could do nothing about it, even though she knew what was going to happen._

_It was because she was doomed. Doomed to be haunted by terrifying memories of gore and death forever._

_The pattering of sprinting feet on the ground never registered to her above her own voice. However, she felt the hands that grasped her by the shoulders, one set to each. They gripped her firmly, stopping her from being dragged into the shadows of the house any further._

_Because Efrona wasn't sure who gripped her, and panic clouded her mind, she struggled against the hands holding onto her as well. "Let go! Don't hurt me-!" she wailed, just like her twelve year old self would._

"_We're not going to hurt you!" a voice was telling her frantically. She shook wildly, against her rescuers-cross-restrainers._

"_It's no good Yugi. She's completely panic-driven," a deeper voice said. "We have to get the shadows to let go of her."_

_Yugi? And that deeper voice, didn't that belong to his counterpart?_

_By sheer determination, Efrona forced the red haze of panic back, clearing her eyes and mind. The two people she saw made her sag with relief-it was Yugi and Yami. She didn't bother wondering why they were in her dream yet, the sight of familiar, comforting people almost made her want to weep from joy._

_She reached up and touched the Millennium Puzzle which hung on Yami's neck. Both he and Yugi had one here, but Yami was the one she would need in this situation. She tugged at it, startling the Pharaoh, and pointed to her ankles shakily._

"_You…__ control them. They're both related to the Shadow Realm…"_

_Yami cradled his Millennium Puzzle. It took less then two moments for him to register her words, and acting on instinct, he pushed out a hand towards her feet. The eye carved on the Millennium Puzzle glowed, and a replica of the picture glowed on his forehead. His eyes darkened with the use of his power._

"_I command you shadows, release this girl!"_

_Golden light outlined his outstretched hand, and the shadows clutching her seemed to shrink and wither away. They withdrew into the house, and the front door swung shut heavily. Silence dominated the air for a few minutes._

_The scenery around them changed, fading away into blackness. They all seemed to be simply floating now._

"_Are you alright?" Yugi softly questioned__ her. Efrona shakily nodded, blinking back the urge to blubber like a baby._

"_Th-thank…" she cleared her throat of the hoarseness her screams had left behind. "Thank you both for saving me. I think I owe you about infinity plus one now for helping me."_

_The two males were confused by her statement, and Efrona realised they didn't recognise her. That was actually a good thing-they wouldn't relate this dream to her, if they were sharing this dream with her. She had to investigate how the two ended up in her dream anyway, whether her magic had anything to do with it, or it was just because her mind seized on comfort._

"_Why were you being dragged into that house?" Yami asked her. Efrona bit her lip nervously. She didn't really want to lie, and she wasn't in any state to lie anyway. She was still trying to cope with the weakness terror left behind._

"_That place is a house of torture. It drags in people who try to enter it," she answered. Yugi gave her an incredulous look._

"_That house screamed__ whenever I open the door before. If it screamed at you as well, why did you try to come in anyway?"_

"_Uh, I didn't…it dragged me in…" Efrona gulped. 'Come on dream, hurry up and finish!' She thought frantically._

_Efrona suddenly felt the intense stares of two males on her-both Yami and Yugi were __staring at her peculiarly. She looked down and saw her whole body was outlined in white light. A warm sensation swept across her skin, like a balmy breeze. The feeling vanished in an instant and when she looked at herself again, she was in…well; it had the same dress design as Belldandy's goddess uniform. Except instead of a sky blue edged yellow overcoat, the overcoat was midnight blue with stark, dark red edging. Efrona wondered at her own get-up._

"_Efrona…" The two onlookers asked in astonishment. She blinked at them, and simply faded from sight._

'_This is the end of the dream, I think. And it sounded like those two were watching my dream, not me imagining them. This is going to be trouble…'_

Efrona erupted upwards from her position lying down on the bed. Her eyes were wide in shock, her breathing shaky. She tried to compose herself, but it took awhile to do so. Once she was calmer though, she slumped back onto her bed with a groan.

She wondered if her suspicions for her dream were correct-she dreaded clearing up the mess it created if they were. And she cursed herself for silently agreeing to be part of Yugi's friendship group, because it meant secrets were hard to keep.

Secrets were what she had lived and breathed for years.

* * *

The next day, all the gang went back to school-it was routine. All but Efrona. Her friends were puzzled at why she didn't come to school. Yugi, who had been waiting for school time to question her, felt a little disappointed and curious. Was the dream he had the night before just a product of his imagination? Though the setting of it he had dreamed about quite often, since before the whole mess with Dartz.

Whether it was or wasn't, one thing was clear-he would be wondering over the mystery that surrounded Efrona for quite awhile, and the curiosity wouldn't die down until he got answers. When had he become so nosy?

'I think that's partly my own emotion you're feeling, Yugi. Sorry,' Yami told him with the mental equivalent of a small shrug.

* * *

While her friends were at school, Efrona was purposely ditching for two reasons. One, a _very_ minor one, was because she didn't want to face Yugi yet. Cowardly maybe, but she needed more time to make herself peacefully serene enough to face him calmly, without too much dread. The second reason was because she needed to clean up the last of Dartz's mess.

She hadn't been completely idle during the brief rest she and her friends had had when they returned home. Besides part time jobs (which the school definitely did not, never would, know about) she took, she had been trying to clean up the mess Dartz's chaos left behind. It wasn't easy. She had to track down his former workers, especially Valon, Allister and Rafael. Cheating the government system using her bracelet (which she had long ago worked out could manipulate modern technology somewhat) she had given them enough resources to be well provided. It was the most she could do for their bizarre, confused lives.

Now she just had one more job to do. 'One Dartz should have done himself,' she thought with a huff. She stepped into Domino Museum and headed for the Egyptian exhibition. Only to find the pieces were being packed away to be sent back to Egypt. All pieces except for one that had something wrong with it.

Shamelessly, Efrona slipped into the room where the museum kept objects that needed to be repaired, and found it. The Tablet of the Pharaoh.

Ice still encased it-Dartz had conveniently forgotten to defrost it, apparently. Efrona grumbled under her breath. "I missing valuable time at school for his mess, I don't want to flunk my grade just because I have to miss out on work…jeez." Though it was impossible to flunk actually-she had studied too hard during other times that her academic record was rather high.

Efrona touched the ice encasing softly with one hand, feeling the chill of ancient, dark power. Since the source of the power feeding its magic was gone though, Efrona could use her magic to break the current ice still frozen over it. She smiled cheerfully. "At least I can do this much to repay you Yugi, for all you've done for me and the others that I was meant to help."

The ice began to melt quickly thanks to her magic. From under her golden lit hand, right to the bottom of the Tablet, the ice thawed and dripped water onto the ground. She directed the water away from the stone Tablet, so it wouldn't be any more damaged or worn then it already was.

Finally, the Tablet was safely defrosted and dry. Efrona stretched her arms out freely, a merry smile on her face. At least that was done. Missing school, though bad for her education (to her), couldn't hurt if it was only one day. Besides, if she was so worried about her own grades she could go study in the library.

Actually, going to the library sounded like a good idea-she had borrowed math exercise books and they were currently a month overdue. Oops.

'I hated studying and school when I was twelve, and in my first year of high school,' she remembered wryly as she walked towards her destination. 'Now here I am tenth grade, worrying about _missing_ school. I've become such a nerd…but thinking about the future has always been my viewpoint. Between thinking about saving Belldandy's people and trying to find the Pharaoh, as well as haunt other people's dreams, I have thought about myself. Like what I want to be in the future…'

A sudden thought hit her, one so startling to her that she froze on the pathway she walked along. What would her future be? She had always seen the future as saving Belldandy's friends, and in between managing her grades and taking care of herself. Now that she had no higher mission to accomplish anymore, what was she going to do with her life?

'I always wanted to be a doctor. Right now though, I'm just a part time worker in legal teenage clubs. I-I actually can't imagine the type of future I will have. What I'll grow to be, whether I'll even still be in Domino in a few years time-after all, without a 'higher mission' I'm still hiding from someone. I've never lived in one city for more then a few months. Yet Domino seems like home already. Is this what people, with no intensely bizarre and life-risking goals, feel like when they think of their own futures? It's…it's frightening, the uncertainty.'

With a firm shake of the head, Efrona banished the anxious thoughts from her head. She really didn't want to think of the future at the moment. Just the present-where she had an uncomplicated life with kind friends and the warmth of friendship in her heart.

Where she could pretend that she was ordinary, that no one was looking for her. That she wasn't on the run.

* * *

"Hello?"

"Um…hi, is this Tea speaking?"

"Yes, I'm Tea. Who's this, may I ask?"

"Efrona."

Fretfully, Efrona twisted the phone cord around her finger. She peered around at her sparse apartment as if studying it for the first time, wondering at the bareness of it. She had gotten used to living alone-at one stage she had been used to waking up to find someone trying to mug her. They never succeeded.

Maybe that was why her outer façade to the people around her was a happy mask. She didn't have enough happiness within her own personal life, so she tried to create the image of it when she was amongst other people outside of street life. Maybe she hoped that the happiness she tried to hide behind would one day become real-something she could feel.

Impossible. The happiness she hid behind was innocent-something she was the opposite of. Still, she hoped that one day she could feel the mundane happiness of ordinary life. It had to be different from the happiness-no, relief-of surviving dangerous times.

This brought Efrona back to the reason why she was calling Tea. She wanted a normal life somewhat, she wanted friends, and she wanted what she shouldn't. She wanted attachments to places and people.

"Hey Efrona. How come you weren't at school today? Were you sick?" Tea's voice asked in concern. Efrona smiled brightly, and then sheepishly realised Tea couldn't see her.

"No, I wasn't sick. Something came up, and then afterwards I couldn't be bothered coming back to school. I didn't exactly 'ditch' school, since I really did have to do something important. Um, do you mind if I borrow your notes tomorrow for today's lessons? I swear I don't freeload like this often."

"It's fine," Tea giggled. "Jeez, you sound like you were asking to borrow money. Do you want another friendship speech? I'll give you the beginning of one. Friends help each other."

Efrona laughed. "Thanks a lot Tea. You know, you refer to your friendship speeches as over repetitive, but they are just a part of you. Yugi's the centre of the friendship group, and you're the glue. That sort of thing?"

"Um, thanks," Tea said, and it sounded like she was a little embarrassed.

"Right, I didn't just call for notes and to make you embarrassed. I was wondering, are you free on Saturday?"

"Sure, why?" Tea asked in surprise.

"I'm tired of being antisocial. Do you want to hang out on Saturday? I don't know; go to the movies or shopping or something…gee, I'm not very imaginative. You know, a girl's afternoon?"

Stunned silence met Efrona for a few moments. Hesitantly, Efrona called out Tea's name, biting her lip. Her invitation had sounded so clumsy and weird. She really was bad at socialising with people outside of school.

She used to be obsessively chatty, if a little gossipy, and a fashion admirer when she was twelve.

"You're brave," Tea's words finally came. Efrona blinked, confused.

"Huh?"

"You're stepping out of your comfort zone, and it's a brave thing to do," Tea explained. "I still don't know too much about you, but judging from what you told all of us yesterday, I'd say you're not used to hanging out casually with people often. Just during school and sometimes after, when you have to. So trying to be a bit outgoing now takes guts, no matter how easily some people get along with others."

"Like you?" Efrona asked curiously. Surprise emanated from Tea when she answered.

"Maybe. I'm just more talkative then you with people, and I like to meet new faces."

"No way," Efrona disagreed. "If you ever heard me be 'outgoing', you'd most likely run away from me-I never shut up once I start talking. I haven't been like that in awhile though; it seems strange to think about it now. Anyway, did your words before mean yes or no?" Her chirpy voice was hopeful.

"Dummy! Yes, duh."

"Yeah well, I'm sorry for being so dense. I'll see you tomorrow then Tea!"

"Okay Frona-sorry, I'm trying to shorten your name. Is that okay?"

Efrona swallowed the sudden choky feeling that rose in her throat. Her nick name had once been Lisa amongst friends. But that was in the past now.

"Yeah fine. See you. And Tea?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for giving me a chance. I need to thank all of you for giving me a chance to be…" Be what? Be normal, be human?

"Amongst people and not lonely?" Tea asked. "There's simple word for that. Friends, Frona. You're one of our friends."

Efrona couldn't bear to try and sever those ties. So she chose to give them a chance, and let them knot more tightly.

* * *

Please review!

* * *


	25. Chapter 24

Right! I have a question for the readers! Recently, I've been thinking in more detail about the plot line for the second part of Traces Through Time. I was wondering, since it's set in ancient Egypt (oops, spoiler) whether I should Yugi's friendship gang in as their past lives. Ultimatly, it wouldn't affect what happened in the anime-the series will remain mostly canon. They will be more back up characters for Efrona playing friendship roles, what not. But is it a good idea to give them past lives? Please tell me your opinion in a review, readers!

Thank you **Miorochi**, **Koragirl** and **The Duelist's Heiress** for their reviews! Much appreciated!

Ah, the song in this chapter is not owned by me! It belongs to _Hilary Duff_, and is called _Fly_.

* * *

"You are really scary when you go shopping," Efrona sighed, and dropped blissfully onto a chair.

"No, you just don't get out enough, antisocialist," Tea retorted. "Nor do you experiment enough with your clothes…almost all your favourites pieces were the colour black."

Efrona looked affronted. "But the colour looks good on me." Tea stared as if she had a second head.

"If you're going gothic, yes," she allowed. Efrona grinned.

"Exactly."

"All the same, you need variety."

As agreed by their call, Efrona and Tea met together on Saturday and went around doing…well, a lot of talking actually. No mystic mumbo-jumbo conversations, but light, rather air-headed talk that came from the giddiness of going around the mall with girl-time. Not that the two of them were exceptionally feminine, but it was nice to get away from their male friends once in awhile. Especially for Tea.

They had spent the better part of the morning chatting. Tea's confession that she sometimes needed time away from her guy friends, and appreciated each opportunity, wasn't a surprise to Efrona. Hadn't she once felt something similar about her little brother? Not that they had had the best relationship anyway.

Efrona confessed that moving from town to town so often as she had, she didn't actually bother to make friends after awhile because it hurt to think back on previous friendships when she moved. Tea questioned as to why they didn't keep in touch by phone or the like. Efrona had only shrugged, and quietly commented that her lost friends and acquaintances would soon get over her departure. They had ordinary lives to live, while she was a…wanderer.

There were other reasons, but none that Tea needed to here. It would spoil the comfortable mood they were in.

At mid-morning they went into the mall and spent several hours raiding department stores. Efrona nearly choked when Tea tried getting her into mini-shorts. There was no way in hell she was wearing something that short! She refused any clothing that exposed more skin then her arms (up to her forearms) and lower legs. Definitely no tank tops!

Of course Tea was frustrated at her conservativeness. Again, Efrona had reasons for not wanting any clothing more revealing then that, but none that Tea needed to know.

Now they were crashed in the food court, slowly eating their ordered lunches. Efrona couldn't quite remember when she had spent this much money in one day-she was always conservative of money. She had to be a miser to survive living alone. (Thus the reason for her school-banned, part-time jobs. She needed an income after all.)

"You know, it feels weird to have this sense of normalcy," Tea said. She sipped her ordered drink thoughtfully. "With all the wacky things that's happened to Yugi and all of us following, normal suddenly seems…creepy. Like something that'll threaten the world will suddenly appear again, any moment."

"You've learnt to be wary of the future," Efrona sighed. "Never know what might happen. But that's what I am now, always looking forwards and a lot of the time missing the present."

What life did she have now? So focused she had been before on her supernatural mission, she hadn't planned what her normal life would lead to after the mess was over. Now that she found she was 'normal', she didn't know how to react to it-how to enjoy the things around her. She was now just a teenager trying to find firm footing in the world and make her way in life.

"I think it might be balance Tea," Efrona mused. "In between all the crazy things that happen to you and your friends, just appreciate the normal moments. When nothing comes up, you go to school, relax on weekends, and do hobbies you like. You told me earlier you liked dancing?"

Tea smiled brightly. "Yeah. I had a dream of going to New York-getting into Juilliard actually, but…"

"But?" Efrona prompted.

"It sort of faded. It seems like such a far of dream now. I think I'd be happy right now to even get into a dance school."

"You spend too much time with your guy friends," Efrona commented. "Honestly, you need private time to set your own priorities straight, or at least get away from the males. Hence why you're here instead!"

"Yeah, maybe. Speaking of dreams, what's yours?"

Efrona faltered. "I-I don't have any big dreams like you," she stuttered. "I don't really know what I want…I've focused so much on the magic mess for so long that now when I'm free of the mess, I don't know what to do with myself _now_, let alone the future."

(Speaking of dreams, Yugi had not asked her anything about the previous dream she suspected he had witnessed a few nights ago. She was beginning to think maybe he was only one of quite a few images now that she pulled out to comfort her dreams. Efrona happily shoved aside the thought, satisfied, and continued paying attention to Tea.)

"Alright, did you have any dreams when you were twelve? Before you got involved in the mystic business?" Tea asked curiously. Efrona nodded.

"As Elisa? I was an ungrateful brat, but yeah, I had dreams. I wanted to be a doctor. With my grades then, it would have been impossible," she grinned. It faded though. "I still want to be a doctor. But now it seems so far off, like you feel. I've become a person I don't know."

Tea stood up suddenly, crumpling her lunch wrappings. "We both need to get out more often. We think too much about other things and forget to take care of our heads. Let's go have fun while we still have time!"

She dragged a bemused Efrona to the arcade.

* * *

_Any moment, everything can change__,  
Feel the wind on your shoulder,  
For a minute, all the world can wait,  
Let go of your yesterday._

Efrona was not one to draw attention to herself. She did **not** like being up on a stage, singing while watchers stared at her. But when she sang, she could get lost in a fictitious reality she herself had created. Song writing was her hobby, besides others, and she loved it and guitars very much.

Right now she was just having fun, strumming out a guitar rhythm while ignoring the two dozen pairs of eyes trained on her in astonishment inside the arcade's karaoke room.

_Can you hear it calling?  
Can you feel it in your soul?  
Can you trust this longing?  
And take control_

_Fly  
Open up the part of you that wants to hide away  
You can shine,  
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,  
And start to try, cause it's your time,  
Time to fly._

Efrona winked at Tea. Tea stared blankly for a second, before her eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed slightly. She wasn't sure whether to be shocked or flattered that this was…dedicated. To her. When was Efrona so good at singing anyway? Not that she knew that much about the shorter girl. You can know about her past, but you can't know very much about her present personality. The real one, not the mask she wore when they first met.

Tea rather liked this natural person Efrona was trying to show. The somewhat grave, but still relaxed and fun-loving person she had been so far this morning.

_All your worries, leave them somewhere else,  
Find a dream you can follow,  
Reach for something, when there's nothing left,  
And the world's feeling hollow._

_Can you hear it calling?  
Can you feel it in your soul?  
Can you trust this longing?  
And take control,_

_Fly  
Open up the part of you that wants to hide away  
You can shine,  
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,  
And start to try, cause it's your time,  
Time to fly._

_And when you're down and feel alone,  
Just want to run away,  
Trust yourself and don't give up,  
You know you better than anyone else,_

_Any moment, everything can change,  
Feel the wind on your shoulder,  
For a minute, all the world can wait,  
Let go of yesterday,_

_Fly  
Open up the part of you that wants to hide away  
You can shine,  
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,  
And start to try,  
Fly  
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,  
And start to try, cause it's your time,  
Time to fly._

_In a moment, everything can change._

Efrona beamed and finished the song she had finished writing a few days ago with a victory sign. The electric guitar she had just moments ago been strumming she put back in its stand. She resisted the urge to blush as she became aware of the stares fixed on her, and scurried off the stage. She darted to Tea and dragged the taller girl out of the room with her.

"…wow. You didn't tell me you could sing," Tea said, once she snapped out of her shock. "And like a pop star already."

"You exaggerate. And you can't say that to me without sounding like a hypocrite-you never told me you were fabulous at dancing. Nor the fact that you won several regional dance competitions," Efrona replied. At Tea's startled face, she shrugged. "There were some old magazines in the library, and your face appeared on quite a few of them from when you were younger."

Lightly bickering, they exited the arcade with their bags and began walking towards Tea's house. (Efrona insisted despite the taller girl's worry-she didn't mind walking back home alone.) They were surprised to be showered with the flower petals of certain flowers from a tree just outside the arcade-a tree that hadn't bloomed flowers in years because of its city location.

"Wow, you could say the world in general is happy today. Sunny day, blue skies, no clouds and flowers suddenly blooming," Tea commented in amusement. She was puzzled when she looked at Efrona and saw a blush streaking the said girl's cheeks, her bangs drooping low over her eyes. "Efrona? You okay?"

"…it's my fault."

"Fault for what?" Tea asked. Efrona looked up in embarrassment. Another shower of petals blew past them from the flowering tree, and some caught in the loose strands of her ponytail. Efrona sighed, blowing strands of hair and petals off her face.

"Um…there are some side affects to being…what I am. You know, with all the magic and stuff. And, well, one of the things that have side affects is singing. Singing speeds up the growth process of plants, or helps it along. The flowers popped up when I sang. I thought I had complete control over-over that reaction," she sighed. Tea laughed.

"Now that's something I would've expected from one of those angel stories. It actually exists!"

Efrona glared at her balefully and kept walking. "It's not fun. I have to keep a pot plant wherever I live so that I can sing at home."

"You'll show me where you live one day won't you?"

Efrona was silent for awhile. "Maybe," she finally replied. "If…if you really want, maybe sometime. But it's not really anything to look at."

"Do you live in one of the more dodgy areas, like Joey?" Tea asked in alarm.

"Sort of. It's not very bad. Just sometimes a few drunks stumble past the front at night. I live in an apartment. It's…very plain. And gloomy."

"Oh, that's not bad. Plain is okay-you just moved in, after all," Tea shrugged.

"It's sparse, plain and it doesn't feel like home," Efrona admitted softly. Tea glanced at her, puzzled, and Efrona went on.

"When you go to someone's house, you can normally feel a sort of homey feeling about the place-it's been lived in, people have laughed and been happy in there. Like Yugi's place-it's _warm_,and welcome. I've never lived in one place for more than a few months. Each place I lived in was simple, unnoticeable. I never bothered being personally comfortable in those places, knowing I was going to move soon enough. It's just a place I was going to live in for awhile."

Efrona laughed curtly. "Sorry, I'm rambling. Point is, I'm a dull person, and my living place reflects it. If I try decorating my place now, it still won't feel like home. I left that sense behind when I was twelve."

"I wonder if it's because you truly can't feel like home, or because you don't let yourself," Tea replied. Surprise crossed Efrona's expression, so Tea elaborated. "I'm saying, Frona, are you planning to stay in Domino, or are you going to leave?"

Silence met her question. Tea blinked at Efrona-she had honestly expected the girl to reply immediately that she was going to stay. Was she planning to leave, despite all her talk of having friends here and such? Was she, Yugi, Joey and Tristan just more faces for her to leave behind and lose contact with?

"I can't believe you!" Tea exploded. "If you were planning to just leave all of us behind and lose contact just like you did with others you've met, then you're not as sincerely nice you've acted so far, even without being incredibly happy all the time. And I thought I was getting to know you better."

Efrona glared at Tea, eyes flashing dangerously. Tea nearly stepped back from the ferocity of her expression-she had only seen that expression once, directed at Dartz just before Yami and Kaiba began duelling the previous psycho. She hadn't realised how vicious it was and she wondered how Dartz stood up to it while smirking. Or maybe it was just a trait for megalomaniacs to smirk at everything.

"E-Efrona?" Tea questioned, almost unsteadily. Efrona blinked, and at once her expression cleared.

"Oh, sorry," she said sheepishly. "I spaced out. But please don't…don't judge me just yet, okay? I've told you before there are some things I'm not comfortable sharing with people yet. I don't _like_ losing contact with those rare people I made friends with in the past, but it was…better. It would be better for you, Yugi, Joey and Tristan to stop hanging around me too, but it seems I can't pull away now. I really do want to stay in Domino, for your information. I want to be friends with all of you." Embarrassment lined her face as she said this, but her voice was firm.

"Sorry as well," Tea replied. "I didn't have a right to say what I said before, and it was pretty harsh."

Efrona gave thumbs up. "We're even!"

"Have you ladies finished gossiping yet? We've been waiting for awhile," a voice interrupted the lightened moment. Tea and Efrona abruptly swung around, and both gasped. When had those six punks snuck up on them?

'This is such a cliché situation-and here I thought I was smarter then those people in the movies,' Tea thought.

'I'm such an idiot-when did I let my guard down and forget to keep alert of surroundings?' Efrona thought. 'Ewwww, even worse, some of these people look kind of familiar.'

"Been awhile, gem," the obvious leader of this gang said. Efrona narrowed her eyes, disgusted.

"Your nick names are still as plain as ever, bastard," she retorted, much to Tea's surprise.

"You know these people, Ef-?!" Her sentence was cut off by a hand over her mouth. Efrona shushed her urgently.

"Sorry. It's better if we don't say each other's names in front of gangsters though," Efrona advised, and quickly lifted her hand from Tea's mouth. She swung around to face the gangsters surrounding them. "So, did you stalk me here or is just co-incidence you're in town?"

"Wouldja believe it, just co-incidence!" the gang leader replied, laughing. The laugh abruptly stopped though. "But now that I remember, you still owe us for breaking my buddy's arm some time back."

"He was harassing me first. I don't owe anything," Efrona replied.

"Baby, I gave you a choice last time we met," the leader offered. "Last time, I said you could either join my gang or die. You never chose cause you ran off too quickly. What say you choose now? Personally I'd prefer you to join my gang-not enough kick-ass females in the group." He licked his lips while measuring her up and down. Efrona donned her previous vicious expression again, and he smirked at her fury. (Proving one thing to Tea-villains were blind to anything but themselves.)

"I don't want to die, but I don't really want to join any gang groups either," Efrona said. Her voice was quiet and tense. "You're lucky your buddy made it out of our fight with only a broken arm. Let my friend and I pass-there's no need for a fight."

"Sorry babe," he said, and a switchblade glinted in his and his friends' hands. "You just started it."

They lunged, all of them. Efrona, dropping all civility, shoved Tea into a wall to protect both their backs, and proceeded to launch into the fight. The warning glare she gave to Tea was enough to freeze the brunette in shock. She'd get herself killed alone though!

"Efrona!" Tea cried, but gaped in surprise at what she was seeing.

"Assholes!" Efrona roared, as she grabbed a flunky charging at her. "Like I'd ever want to be a whore for your group!" She pressed against him, dodging under his knife, and kneed him in the groin _hard_. As he ducked to instinctively clutch his hurt, she slammed her palm brutally against his temple, and he sunk to the ground, dazed. A carefully forceful boot to his head had him unconscious.

As soon as she knocked out the first attacker, she lost sense of reality. It was as if her mind had suddenly split in half-one was the one functioning to survive her current fight, the other was reliving another, particularly violent fight in the past.

"_Stay still and we won't torture you for long, brat."_

"_You honestly think I'm that stupid? Like hell, bastards."_

A slash from a blade ripped her jacket. A small cut from the top of her left shoulder to collarbone planes marred her pale skin. Scowling menacingly, barely in control of her fighting instincts, Efrona grabbed the wrist of her attacker, ignoring the knife point scraping dangerously against the planes of her upper chest. With a snarl of effort, she used both hands and twisted the wrist hazardously, at least spraining it. The guy howled from pain as he dropped the knife and cradled his hand. Efrona didn't let him retreat-she slammed him against the wall and with cold precision, used the handle of the switchblade she stole from him to knock him out.

"_Damn bitch! She broke my wrist!"_

"_Don't mess with me then, punks. Had enough?"_

'I can't keep going like this…I'm losing sense of reality. At this rate, I'll go completely psycho…' Efrona thought with a detached sort of manner. She was too far drawn into the fight to stop herself now. And she was too ingrained in her memories to tame the wilder facet of her character. The only thing holding her to the edge to sanity was Tea's presence and her old, steadfast morals. She wouldn't hold back fighting short of killing or fatally wounding her opponents.

"_Kid, you can't last long in this fight. There's tons of us, and only one of you. Why try and make your punishment worse?"_

"_Damn it, I didn't do anything wrong! Are you punks mentally retarded, or deaf? I said it before."_

"_Smart mouth wench, your punishment's going to get worse in the end!"_

Tea watched in horror as her friend, so amiable before, usually smiling, serene or quietly grave, become a fighting machine. Friendship and the fact Efrona didn't kill any of them with the switchblade she had managed to steal was the only reason Tea wasn't scared to death of her friend. Efrona's eyes were eerily blank as she fought, the normal pale blue colour lightened to a grey-blue shade. It changed just like when she got too lost in her memories-when she wasn't in her right state of mind.

Efrona tossed a few stray locks from her face. Slowly, she advanced onto the only two remaining gang members left-the boss and his slut. She had a knife out, but it was held shakily, and the woman was trying to squirm behind the gang leader. He snorted, and shook her off. Inwardly, he was shocked at his opponent's skill. It was no wonder his buddy had got his arm broken-the girl's skill was superior to his.

Still, pride didn't allow him to back away from a one-on-one direct fight. He critically assessed her.

Injuries: minor cuts on her left shoulder and collarbone planes; shallow, bleeding cuts on her arms; probably a bruised abdomen from the way her breaths were pulled lighter then before; a slight limp in her gait-she had slightly strained a muscle. The worst was one that a lackey of his had managed to inflict on her side and part of her lower back-a knife slash that was dripping blood. It wasn't too bad though-it hadn't gone near deep enough to pierce any organs. She was fast and quickly reactive.

"You really should have agreed to join my gang. It would've saved you the pain," the boss sighed, and launched into attack, knife held open.

"_This is what you get."_

"_You won't beat me."_

She dodged it, but not completely. A thin, almost unnoticeable line was cut just under her jaw. Her feet flashed forward, slamming against his ankle. He stumbled, but didn't fall, as she expected. He was better than she thought. With a smirk, he slammed his elbow into her stomach and slapped her face at the same time. From the sidelines, he heard the girl's friend cry out in horror, and his own girl's giggle of vengeful delight. Confident of his win, he seized his opponent's ponytail and jerked it back, keeping her kneeling on the ground.

"_Ha! What happened to the mouthing off, wench?"_

"…_you…bastard…I'm not…giving up!"_

_Blood dribbled from her back and mouth while she said the words, and a knife jutted out from the stab wound, glinting in the dim light._

_Was she…going to die here after all? After surviving for a year already on her own?_

"Your friend's going to be serving our gang after I'm finished with you, kitten," he purred. Wrong thing to say.

_Like hell she would g__ive up and let herself die here!_

Efrona reacted instinctively to any threat. The fact that it was a threat to her friend and an innocent bystander registered-she had to act immediately!

"Touch her and die," she snarled, and shot a freezing glare that dared Tea to move from her spot. With renewed desperation she lunged forward, biting the arm that clutched her hair. Yelping, he let go, but flashed his knife down for a quicker kill then he wanted.

Efrona, eyes now not just blank, but the depiction of flaming hell and brimstone in the harsh silver tints of her grey-blue eyes, grabbed the oncoming knife with an instinctive hand, clenching her hand around the blade and forcing it down. Blood dripped from her closed fist, but she ignored it and the searing pain. She punched the boss's face as hard as she could, then slammed the knife she snatched off him into his stomach by the hilt, refusing to kill him. At the same time she sent a harsh chop at his throat, slamming his neck back. As he fell, gasping, she slammed a clenched hand upwards into his jaw, snapping his head backwards and to the floor. With a kick, she knocked him unconscious.

Slowly, with the knife still clenched in her bloody fist, she turned towards the remaining female gang member. Her eyes spoke of hell. They blazed with adrenaline, excitement and possibly bloodlust.

"_See? Told you I would win. Wouldn't want to be killed because of someone pathetic like you. Now beat it."_

_Her eyes were unfocused from weariness and loss of blood__, but they blazed a more effective threat than words could._

"You also?" she asked with icy indifference. The female gasped, dropping her blade, and shakily ran. To hell with standing with the gang, the damn girl looked ready to run her through with the knife she held!

Efrona watched the other run. She slowly dropped the knife she held and bowed her head, letting her bangs cover her eyes. Clenching her fists painfully, she struggled to bring herself to the present situation, away from past memories. Away from the uncontrolled, unreliable, dangerous part of herself.

'I never wanted you to see me like this Tea.' She thought sadly, spotting Tea's white face through long forelocks. 'I never wanted any of my new friends to see me like I used to be. Like I still am.'

"E-Efrona?" Tea stuttered, and cleared her throat. "Efrona, are you alright?" Well of course she wasn't, she berated herself. She was scratched, wounded and bleeding. "Efrona, let's go to a hospital-"

"No."

Tea trailed into silence, uncertain what to do after the other girl's reply.

"Tea, just…go home by yourself. I need to…" Efrona mumbled half incoherently. She still wouldn't lift her head and let Tea see her face. She turned abruptly with the intention of running off, but realised, when her vision wavered slightly, that she was in worse shape then she thought. She was too tired to move immediately. And she needed to get her more serious wounds looked at.

Hands touched her forearms lightly. Efrona jerked in shock and clenched her fists, still wary of an attack. From under her bangs however, she saw Tea. By a supreme effort, she managed to relax.

"Efrona, let's get you some help. You need to be looked at," Tea said in concern.

"…no hospitals," Efrona relented tonelessly. The dull voice scared Tea more then anything at the moment.

A police siren wailed through the air. It had spotted them and the mess of gangsters on the street. Tea bit her lip-if the police caught them, they would surely send Efrona to a hospital for stitches. She had learned by now that Efrona did not refuse something unless there was a reason. Heck, she didn't even defend herself properly against Joey's teasing!

"Efrona, whatever you do, don't faint. We're going to walk to a friend's house, or the policemen heading for us will send you to a hospital. Alright?"

Silence, but a tiny nod. Efrona was sure she could stand for a little while longer-she had endured pain before.

_After the pathetic dogs for punks ran off, Efrona duly concluded, just before she fainted on the deserted road, that she really needed a hospital…if not f__or the shock of her worst fight yet, then from the stab wound in her back that was currently spouting blood like a tap._

Tea supported the shorter girl as they began walking, leading her. Efrona followed her like a lifeless doll, and she still wouldn't uncover her eyes. Trembling slightly, Tea took out her mobile phone and called the closest friend to them at the moment. This was still ten minutes by walking.

"Yugi? Listen, something bad happened, and we're-Efrona and I-are heading for your house…"

* * *

Well! A filler sort of chapter here-deals more in Efrona's establishing friendship with Tea (female who I think needs mroe female friends that stick around) and the uglier aspects of Efrona's pastand character . Though most of her past was already ugly. The violence of her character in here is more of a stain on her childhood innocence that stuck.

Please review and tell me what you think.


	26. Chapter 25

Hi! Just got back from a camp, and it was such a pain. No showers, no toilets, temperature below ten degrees-and I live in a place where the lowest temperature I had to survive through was about thirteen degrees. Okay, I've finished whining.

Anyway, after camp, I rushed to finish typing up this chapter. Because I left the plot in my mind for a long time, it sort of got mixed with other ideas for later chapters, and the result was a very mixed chapter that I'm not quite sure how to organise. I'm not sure if I like this final product, but it'll do. Please don't flame me for this chapter.

As usual, my huge thanks to **Miorochi**, **The Duelist's Heiress** and **Koragirl **for their reviews! They were a large morale booster.

* * *

Yugi had expected Tea and Efrona in some sort of ruffled state when they arrived. However, when he opened the door, he found not just two ruffled girls, but one unconscious girl being half dragged by her friend.

"She fainted on the way here. I really need to take care of the last of this mess-could you take care of her wounds?" Tea asked desperately. Shock made Yugi silent, and he could only nod. She smiled gratefully at him, and they both carried Efrona over to a couch. Once she was laid out comfortably, Tea abruptly fled the house.

Yugi hastily began working on her wounds. With a flush of shamed embarrassment, he took off her jacket and shirt. The sight of her skin made him gasp. His horrified eyes took in what they saw for several moments, before Yugi remembered he was meant to be treating her wounds. He immediately set to work.

"She's completely scarred, Yami!" he said to his hovering partner. Yami observed her with hawk eyes before turning away, respecting the girl's dignity since he was not her treater.

Whatever she had suffered for those scars-was it also his fault? All her misfortune began when one of his unknown enemies showed up on her doorstep.

* * *

_Did I do something wrong in a past life? Was I such a __brat as a kid that I deserved to be haunted?_

_All I ask for, during both my waking and conscious moments, is peace. A sense of true serenity that isn't a mask. Maybe even belonging. I was beginning to receive them._

_Once your naiveté is destroyed though, you can't ever get it back. Your nature will be stained forever, like mine is, and there is nothing that can be done to remove it. Sadness and pain just become a part of you-they help create the mask of serenity worn. The silver lining in the white clouds. Memories and reminders help create the person you become._

_They are the trigger to pain as well. Not an ache, but an unhealed, raw pain._

_Sometimes, __I don't want my memories. I want to live life without having constant regrets. I want to feel complete joy and happiness, be utterly taken in a moment like that, without holding back on emotions. I want every emotion that I show to be real, especially positive ones. I want to be a light-hearted person without feeling strange about it. I want to know what my real personality is, behind all the grave sadness, loss, tragedy, regret, etc, because I don't even know who I truly am. My memories confuse and hide things, because my past is so messed up._

_I don't want to remember__…those moments that become my shame…and those that scar._

* * *

The comfortable unconsciousness which had enveloped her, leaving her mind to lock itself deep within her soul for contemplation, slowly receded. Gradually, Efrona began to realise the darkness she was seeing in front of her wasn't the same one that she had been staring at while cursing her own memories. It was actually the inside of her eyelids.

Disorientated, she opened her eyes blearily, and was met with the scene of a dark, unfamiliar room. Alarm ripped through her and she shot up from her horizontal position. The action made her gasp in pain. Looking down, she saw, beneath the blanket covering her, that she was dressed in a tank top she normally would never wear. Lifting the shirt, she found the wound on her side and back that she had acquired before had been bandaged carefully.

Her hand and other wounds had been similarly taken care of, and she could feel several bandaids plastered on her. Wondering who had bandaged her, she looked around the room.

It was a homely bedroom, with all the furniture expected for a boy's room. A few posters of duel monsters hung on the walls and the back of the door. Efrona felt a small smile lift the corner of her lips at the comfortable atmosphere of the room, despite it being boyish. Her eyes shifted to the desk in the room, eyeing the golden box sitting there. An Egyptian eye as well as many hieroglyphics was carved on it.

Ah, well that explained it. Yugi's room. Judging from the sky outside, it was pretty late at night.

Efrona silently slipped out of the bed and crept outside the room. Despite the dappled moonlight dimly lighting the inside of the house, the atmosphere was still comfortable. Again, Efrona felt that sort of wistfulness that came with looking at something she once had. This was the type of atmosphere home felt like, but it wasn't her home. Nowhere was.

She padded into the kitchen and took a drink, sighing after it. It was only then, somewhat peaceful in mind, that she began berating herself. She must have worried Tea by fainting, and Yugi had probably been worried when he saw her. Had Tea dragged her to Yugi's house anyway?

"Yes," a voice answered behind her. Spinning around, Efrona let a sheepish expression show as she saw the 'intruder'. The glass she had in hand ready to hurl she hurriedly put back down.

"Ah, I guess I spoke aloud," she said, rubbing the back of her head. She smiled a little goofily, uncomfortable with being in the same room as Yami. There were some unanswered questions between Yami, Yugi and her that she really didn't feel like discussing, and she also wasn't sure if Yugi and his mysterious, memory-less counterpart knew what caused her to look so beat up. "Sorry if I woke you-or Yugi, whoever first. I thought I came down quietly."

"It's not a problem. We were expecting you to wake up soon."

"Where's Tea? She's alright, isn't she?" Efrona leapt at the chance to ask. Yami nodded.

"She's fine-she went home a few hours ago for some rest, and left some clothes for you in case you had to stay here for awhile. You shouldn't really be moving right now." He eyed her standing position in the kitchen disapprovingly, and she laughed awkwardly.

"My wounds aren't very bad, I'll live. Um, did you get an explanation?"

Yami sat down at the kitchen table, observing her with shadowed eyes. She shifted uneasily, uncomfortable with the tense silence between them. Why did he look so gloomy?

"You were talking in your sleep a few hours ago, just when Yugi came to check up on you."

Efrona jumped, and cursed inwardly. Sleep talking was something no one knew about-it was a _very_ rare habit of hers, and no one but her knew about it. She hadn't intended anyone to find out-she was rather scared about what the content of her unconscious words was. It seemed there was going to be a discussion about what she spoke about.

"What did I say?"

"The main phrase? _I don't want to remember_."

Efrona swallowed silently. She just had to say that in her sleep.

"It was the sincerity which was surprising," Yami went on. "You mentioned that you did not want your memories, and you didn't want to remember them. I know that you must have many unpleasant experiences, but still I wonder why? Why don't you want them? Memories are an essential part of a person." He looked at her with a mixture of disbelief and curiosity.

Efrona didn't reply immediately. She didn't know how too. How were you meant to explain it to a spirit who desperately _wanted_ his memories? She was an enigma to him-someone who did not want her own memories. She must've sounded so very ungrateful.

"Do you know why Tea dragged me here? About me being in a gang fight with someone I used to know and all that…yes? I passed out afterwards not just because of pain and lack of energy, but because I was remembering moments from my past. They are ones I don't wish to have-I want nothing to do with them, because they point out that I haven't changed from my time as a street girl. I'm still a violent, dangerous person. Not a good person. Would you like to see one of my memories? It's not a very personal one, but it does hurt."

Without waiting for his permission, she reached up and touched her fingers to his temples. They both fell away from their physical selves.

* * *

Yami found himself in a dimly lit alley, during what looked like the middle of the night. Yugi stood beside him-his mind had followed Yami's to wherever they had been sent. Further down the alley, very close to them, was a large group of what looked like punks. All had switchblades in hand; all had malicious smirks on their faces. One person shifted, revealing why the group was so clustered-they were surrounding a small formed girl. A younger Efrona, both Yami and Yugi realised. It wasn't hard to see-the blue forelocks and eyes, and short height were Efrona's physical distinction.

"Stay still and we won't torture you for long, brat," one of the people surrounding her shouted out. Efrona wrinkled her nose.

"You honestly think I'm that stupid? Like hell, bastards."

Her words lit a furious fire amongst the punks. They lunged for her at the same time.

Yami and Yugi were unnoticed-the two assumed they were unseen spirits in one of Efrona's memories. They watched in horror as the aimed knives went for Efrona. And gaped in shock when she dodged and weaved away from the blades under people's arms and elbows. She became the person Tea had described to them earlier-a fighting machine, granted maybe less skilled and agile then what was described to them.

She slammed one person against the wall, socked his face and as he slumped, she sent a high kick that knocked him unconscious. Sensing the blade aimed for her neck behind her, she whirled around, using the heavy weight, and swung it straight at her attacker, sending both falling to the floor. Dodging another knife, she grabbed a wrist that just passed her face with both hands and twisted it brutally, also bending it backwards. The two ghostly observers could almost hear the crack of bone breaking under the fierce pressure it was put under.

"Damn bitch! She broke my wrist!" The injured man howled. The group retreated momentarily. They had obviously underestimated her strength.

"Don't mess with me then, punks. Had enough?" Efrona asked cockily. She raised an eyebrow challengingly. It was meant to be intimidating, but it was the wrong moment to use the tactic, and she misjudged the situation. They would not back down from her challenge just because they knew they had underestimated her.

With renewed vigour they attacked her. This time their attack was more planned. People began getting in blows on her. Efrona had bruises forming on her arms, and cuts slowly bleeding out slow trickles of blood. Every so often she would put a hand to her ribs-they were bruised, cracked or broken.

"Kid, you can't last long in this fight. There's tons of us, and only one of you. Why try and make your punishment worse?" A punk called out, rather mockingly. Efrona bared her teeth, like a defiant animal.

"Damn it, I didn't do anything wrong!" She yelled in frustration. "Are you punks mentally retarded, or deaf? I said it before. What happened before was self defence-I don't exactly want to get raped." Efrona had a self-berating face after her words-it didn't look as if she had meant the last comment to slip out.

"Smart mouth wench, your punishment's going to get worse in the end!"

A tick mark formed under Efrona's left eye. Her attacks became more frantic and less planned as she weakened in strength. Her breathing became heavy and gasping, sweat beaded her brows, and she stumbled occasionally, nearly getting run through by a knife a few times as well.

Yami's eyes widened. "They're backing her into a corner." He could see it despite his limited knowledge on street fights. They were spread out around her, gradually closing in and limiting her fighting and dodging space.

Efrona spun around on her heel and found herself nose-to-nose with one goon. Realising too late, she tried ducking under the mass of spread arms around her, but found herself trapped. One particular gangster stepped forward with his knife.

"This is what you get," he said casually.

"You won't beat me," she snapped, and lunged to attack him with a kick.

He dodged, barely moving, and she sped past him with a confused look on her face. The gangster smirked at her vulnerable back, and plunged his knife in deeply. She gagged and spun away, falling heavily.

"Ha! What happened to the mouthing off, wench?" the gangster that had stabbed her teased.

"…you…bastard…I'm not…giving up!"

Blood dribbled from her back and a trickle from her mouth while she said the words and the attacker's knife jutted out from the stab wound, glinting in the dim light.

"Not…going to die!" She gasped. "I'm not going to lose this!"

"You already have," the gangster that stabbed her said, and moved forward, revealing a second knife.

Something wild and desperate glinted in her eyes. They turned grey as if she had stopped paying attention to the world, and completely focused on survival. With speed that came from desperation, she surged forward, letting the attacking knife stab into her arm. She wrenched her arm at an angle, and the blade was jerked out of the gangster's hands, to drop to the floor. She smashed his jaw with a fist, seized the knife he dropped and swung around to face the waves of gangsters suddenly trying to attack her.

The only restrain she had, was not to kill. Bruising, slashing and maiming with a knife were alright by her. She slashed and fought her way out of her boxed in situation, ignoring the bloody wounds inflicted on her own person.

The ferocity of her attacks startled the other gangsters, but they didn't really fear her until she successfully took down five people in one move, slashing at and nearly hitting someone's eyes, slamming a man so hard in the groin it was doubtful whether he would ever have children again, and dealing with the rest similarly. All in less then ten seconds. She snarled as she finished with that batch of attackers efficiently.

"Shit she's freaking lost it!" someone yelled. The remaining uninjured gangsters of the group backed away slightly, seeing the blood-tinted, yet still not death-stained knife in her hands. Efrona glared at them with the promise of a demon about to unleash hell on earth.

"See? Told you I would win. Wouldn't want to be killed because of someone pathetic like you. Now beat it."

Her eyes were cloudy from weariness and loss of blood, but they blazed a more effective threat than words could. The remaining gangsters saw the look, took one look at the glinting, dripping knife in her hand, and ran away like dogs with tails between their legs.

Once she was sure they were gone, Efrona stumblingly walked into another alley close by, clinging onto walls for support. Worried, Yugi and Yami followed. Finding a deserted alley, she stopped there, and they stoped as well. With a sense of horror and the feeling of nausea, they watched as she slowly reached behind herself and pulled out the knife that had been lodged in her back. Blood gushed out worse then before.

Endurance could only last so long. Efrona fainted dead away.

"Efrona!" Yugi and Yami called. The scene around and in front of them blurred and vanished, leaving them to fall through darkness.

* * *

Efrona's hands dropped from their position covering the sides of Yami's head. Yami blinked and opened his eyes, staring at her dazedly. Yugi was nearby, breathing quickly, eyes wide. She looked away from their shocked expressions.

"I didn't mean to show you the more gory parts of that memory…but those are the types of memories I don't want to have. It made me a smarter, more discreet street girl, and afterwards even a working teenage loner, but it's things like that, that have made me lose some of the more…innocent aspects of my personality. If I didn't know the harsher reality of life, I might be a little nicer, more honest, more willing to accept friendship and warmth and less surprised that there are nice people in the world…"

She cut off, and suddenly grinned, once again shocking the two males in the room. The grin looked positively sheepish, and the complete opposite of her grim, wistful expression a moments ago. This had to be female complex-mood swings.

"I'm sorry, I'm whining, and I shouldn't," she laughed. "Plus I sound like a ranting idiot right now. I guess what I'm trying to say is, while you might want your memories back, you don't know what they are. But they must have made you become the person you are now-a good, admirable person. I know what my memories are, and they don't add up to being a good person. So I wonder what I am right now."

"Just because you did…not-so-good things in the past, doesn't mean you're a bad person now," Yugi said. "You did what you had to, to survive."

"And hurt people, broke rules, along the way. I've even hurt friends, Yugi, intentionally or not. See what I've become now-I have a worse mood swing complex than most females trying to decide which one is my real personality."

"But you've changed now, and it's not good for you to keep thinking back into the past in your circumstance," Yami advised. "It's something you told me before-why not take your own advice?"

"The past is part of my present, Yami. It's the reason why I'm still jumpy about having all of you people as my friends-you're in danger. I'm dangerous. I'm dangerous not just for your safety, but dangerous for your purpose," Efrona snapped, and then paled and clamped a hand over her mouth. That hadn't meant to come out.

"Purpose?" Yugi asked. Yami looked at her cautiously.

"That person who murdered your family and hurt you three years ago, is he still after you?!" he asked in alarm. She stood up suddenly.

"I can't answer that, I can't say anymore," she said firmly. "Otherwise I might change your destiny, Yami. It's late, we should all rest. Thanks a lot for taking care of my wounds…and since you probably saw my back, I'll tell you this-most of the scars came from that fight I showed you."

She walked rapidly to the doorway, and then stopped. "Oh, I forgot to talk about one thing. Did you dream of a house full of screams a few nights ago?"

"Y-yeah," Yugi said, startled. Her mouth settled into a hard, tight smile.

"The part of my life when I was Elisa, I remember my home being a happy, lively place. But that night when my family was killed, the name Elisa died, as well as any association to the name. How I remember my old house in Australia, with my name Efrona taken up-I remember it as a house of horror. Hence the screams. Sorry that you had to see and hear that-I'll have to look into how you did anyway. Goodnight." She walked away.

Yugi sighed. Here she went again, distancing herself, just when she was beginning to get comfortable with society. She was a fifteen year old whose reasoning was warped because of her experiences, and lack of anyone to point out why her logic was flawed. She might be dangerous, but it wasn't really her choice to make whether her friends stayed and took the risk or not. Neither was it her choice whether to be given help-given help was offered freely by friends.

She had always been the most enigmatic figure in the whole of their group, the most enigmatic friend he had so far. In fact, she was really no better than the rest of them-a teenager trying to work around the bumps in life, trying to do that whole 'finding yourself' concept.

Yugi glanced at Yami, who had a thoughtful expression on his face, and inwardly laughed. He smothered it quickly before his counterpart could sense it. He had a best friend who was a spirit too mature for his teenage-looking years (discounting the five millennia he had been asleep), but who had a bit of a rash and self-conscious streak in him at times, when stuck in strange situations. And then he had a new friend who was trying to be mature and responsible, yet she had a lot of realisations to make before she could achieve that. Then there was him and his other friends, Tea, Joey and Tristan. Mediators who improved themselves at their own pace, and stable ground for the other two.

Yami and Efrona were in the same boat, just like they were when fighting a psycho Dartz-it was an odd thought, but true. Destiny was ironic in putting those two together to puzzle at and help each other.

* * *

I know this chapter is a little bit mixed up. Basically, it's just after Efrona's gang fight. While she's unconscious, she contemplates how life made her what her personality is at this point in the story. She has a lot of bad memories she doesn't want to remember, or associate with good ones. She talks in her sleep, and Yami hears about her not wanting to remember. When she wakes up, he questions her, and she shows him and Yugi a bad memory of a particularly painful gang fight that nearly killed her. She, Yugi and Yami have this discussion on how memories create a person. She reveals a little too much info and shuts up pronto. She clears up that little deal with Yugi and Yami witnessing one of her nightmares, but not completely, since she's not comfortable sharing too much with them at the moment. Then Yugi comes to several epiphanies about his best friends.

Phew, I think that's it in a nutshell. Until next chapter, you know what I'll say-please leave a review!


	27. Chapter 26

Yes people, I've actually updated in less than a month! A record for me lately...that's a bit sad.

Anyway, this chapter is mostly a mesh of Efrona's views and opinions. There'll be a lot of repetition, and yes I've done that purposely to emphasise a point.

Yeah, I've made this chapter into a songfic as well. The song included in here is _Burned_, by _Hilary Duff_. I love that song! But don't own it, sadly.

Thank you to **Koragirl **and **The Duelist's Heiress** for their reviews! :)

* * *

Efrona stared pensively at her necklace. "You've caused a huge puzzle with a simple answer, and I don't think I like it," she told it.

Sighing, she flopped back on her bed. She was insane, talking to an inanimate object, but she was just so _frustrated_. She had spent the whole week enduring the uncomfortable pauses the group had when they accidentally touched on any matter related to the gang fight (sometimes the sharing of info in a friendship group could be a bad thing) and was running on six hours of light sleep each night. She was a girl who liked a solid seven to ten hours sleep-she liked as much routine as she could put in her life. Routine was the only thing she could relate to _peace_. Something she couldn't have even in her deep sleep because she had to figure out how Yugi and Yami had managed to see her nightmare a few nights ago.

All that pondering and uneven sleep, in between school, homework and a persistent music teacher who wanted her as the lead character Christine in the school play remake of Phantom of the Opera, added to a sense of building frustration that she could only relieve a few times, during basketball in sport classes at school. One hour sessions of her favourite sport were not enough for her.

The pondering had been somewhat worth it. She had come up with a theory for the reason why Yugi and Yami had been able to see her nightmare, and if it was right, then she was truly a screw up who deserve to die.

Imagine if each time she had in dreams, connected and/or communicated with a person who had magical powers, regardless of origin, the said communicated person had a mental dream link back to her through said powers they owned, she could have been killed numerous times in her sleep. Or even just during the day, if they could send a curse to her strong enough. People like a once psycho Dartz could've attacked her anytime they liked, if they had found out about the link from them back to her.

She was such an idiot. It was only luck she hadn't died yet. She hadn't made dream contact with many people, let alone magic ones. Dartz was out of the picture, since he was wherever peaceful spirits rested. That man-no, _monster,_ that had attacked her family she had never tried making contact with-her aim had been to disappear from his awareness completely.

That left Yugi and Yami, and she was sure they wouldn't hurt her. However, if this theory was right, they had entrance to her dreams. Something she didn't want. Heck, what if they had already incidentally seen a lot of her dreams and memories that had come with it, and just hadn't made the connection yet? She did not want to think of that…

How could she keep them out? With a direct link to herself, just as she had one to their dreams, they both had access to each others' unconscious minds. Except while she could control hers, Yugi and Yami would use it accidentally. She wanted her privacy in sleep.

Of course, if they couldn't remember her existence…

Efrona banged her head into the pillow. No! She wasn't going to do to her friends what she had done to so many other people in her runaway past. She had no 'higher mission' calling her, no humongous duty to finish. She was just a normal girl now trying to keep a low profile, and hoping never to use the abnormal part of herself again. She was finally living without others' dependence of their souls on her. There was no way she was giving up what she had now!

"How the hell do you handle the stress of having people depend on you, Yami?" she huffed into her pillow. "Wait, it's affected you. You're incredibly mature, even at whatever age you are, but you're too serious and a little intimidating."

A sudden, rash thought entered her mind. Why did she have to sever the link? Yami and Yugi were kind people who didn't hurt their friends. They were no threat to her, and if she built her mental walls up thick enough, she could possibly block them from seeing most of her dreams. If they saw parts of her nightmares or memories-well, they knew she hadn't exactly had a good life. She shouldn't worry about this link back so much, or it would eventually scare her into running away again. Something she was tired of.

Starting at every shadow showed she was a coward, and she was tired of playing that nature too.

* * *

"Efrona, Ryou, you two will be assignment partners, and your topic will be…"

Efrona and Ryou stood next to each other. Efrona pretended to listen attentively to the teacher, a small, cheery smile on her face. Inwardly she groaned. This assignment sounded so boring, she was already zoning out. Well, if she missed anything the teacher said, it would be on their assignment sheet anyway.

The teacher dismissed the two standing before them, and the two students hastily made their escape towards a quiet corner of the classroom. Efrona turned to Ryou with a large smile.

"Sorry, you'll have to put up with me for awhile for this assignment," she said sheepishly. "I didn't really pay attention to the teacher-what's our topic?"

Ryou gave a shy smile, his brown eyes a little surprised. She had looked like she was paying attention-to be honest, he hadn't. His mind was too distracted with darker, more fearful thoughts than an assignment. "I wasn't paying attention either."

"I'll go get our assignment sheet then. If I can find it under that mountain of paper," she grinned, and walked towards the messy, paper-barricaded teacher's desk.

Ryou smiled uncomfortably and nodded with a polite smile. He wasn't used to working with strangers, being a withdrawn person. Efrona being a notably cheery person in class just made her so much more different to him, and someone he should mostly stay away from. He was a dark person, who still had the possibility of hurting someone even though he was almost sure that he had no more evil second person dwelling in his mind. _Almost_ sure.

'Something about her…is strange…' A dreaded voice said in his mind. Ryou's eyes widened. No! He couldn't be back. He had probably just imagined that. _He_ couldn't be back!

Suddenly his mind turned blank, and the last thing he remembered was a painful sensation, like a battering ram had been taken to his head. It was horribly familiar, and the sensation always meant trouble afterwards.

"Found it!" Efrona exclaimed, walking back. She sighed in relief and pretended to wipe sweat off her brow. "It took five minutes digging for just one little piece of paper," she muttered grumpily. She looked up at Ryou, and frowned when she realised he wasn't even paying attention to her. His shoulders were slightly hunched, his head tilted forward, and his white bangs covered his eyes.

Efrona became wary. There was something strange about him now, something cold, chilling…menacing. The menacing edge felt rather familiar, like a scent from a long time ago. Her instincts immediately screamed at her to run, run from this boy and never look back. Heck, it was nearly enough to scare her out of Domino! "Ryou?" She hesitantly, reluctantly raised a hand to grasp his shoulder and give it a firm shake.

His hand flashed out, catching her wrist in a bruising grip. She started at the uncharacteristically violent grip the normally gentle boy had on her, and then a sudden thought occurred to her.

Ryou Bakura had been carrier of a darker spirit that came with the Millennium Ring. Yugi had told her, when he thought he had first introduced her to his world of magic, that the menacing spirit was assumed banished into the Shadow Realm. But really, was he still there? After all, when Yami beat Marik in the final duel of Battle City, all the souls Marik had banished had been returned to their respective owners. It was a possibility that Marik and Bakura had duelled, and Bakura had lost and been sent to the Shadow Realm. Only to come back when Marik was beaten in a different duel.

"Please let go," Efrona asked sharply. It was more a demand than request. Her breath stuck in her throat as the boy in front of her lifted his eyes-he wasn't Ryou. The cold, cruel, calculating eyes were the polar-opposite to Ryou's gentle, meek ones when she had seen them a few times.

To her shock, his pupils began to _change colour_. Red began to leak into the pupils, gradually overtaking the dark brown. The red tints that slowly grew began to faintly glow.

Terrible glowing, inhumane red eyes…they belonged to a beast. Yet it wasn't the colour that startled her, nor did her fear come largely from the lack of humanity in the gaze. It was the darkness…like a well that, instead of being filled with endless, cold black shadows, was filled with blood and painful, crimson madness.

No! She had avoided that gaze, the owner of that gaze, for a long time. Yet here was the same pitiless gaze from the last moments of her life as Elisa, set within a face almost a stranger to her. They were a catalyst for so many things in her mind that it spun. In fact, her vision spun, and the line between past and present, reality and nightmare, seemed to blur.

Pain.

Red.

Dismemberment.

Death.

Horror.

Terror.

Broken.

_No more! Don't think! Don't remember!_

A scream tore through the school, and echoed in the courtyards. It was the single, most eerie scream anyone had ever heard, something that was meant to come from a possessed demon.

At that same moment, several water pipes throughout connecting to the school toilets burst, flooding the bathroom in water. The water was chilly, even frosty, and later would be remarked upon as almost half frozen.

The classroom, and the classrooms surrounding it, was deathly silent as Efrona collapsed to the ground. Thin arms caught her before she hit the ground, and soft, rounded, dark brown eyes blinked in bewilderment and anxiety at the girl in his arms.

"Efrona!" several voices chorused. But the girl was deaf to reality.

* * *

Hands shaking dangerously, Efrona slowly, carefully tuned her guitar so she wouldn't break either the tuning pegs or the guitar strings. It was taking longer than usual because every few minutes, she would remember what happened just three days ago, and her hands would shake. She'd only been released from hospital yesterday.

As soon as she'd fainted, a nurse had been brought to see her. Unfortunately, the nurse had seen Efrona's ashen face, shallow breathing and clenched, slightly trembling fists, and recognised it as shock or trauma. She'd promptly been sent to hospital.

After a few hours of shaking, even when medicated with shock treatment pills, whatever they were, Efrona came to, surrounded by the friends she had acquired in Domino and a concerned Ryou Bakura. She had to squash the panic that had tried to build up in her mind at the sight of him-luckily it had never showed in her eyes. After a once over at everyone in the room though, she couldn't bring herself to meet anyone's eyes.

She didn't deserve the honour, what with the cowardly action she was going to do soon. After picking up the broken pieces of herself, and creating them into a different identity, after surviving street life as-as-well, something not quite honest…

She still hadn't changed. Still weak, still a coward, still fearful. Still a failure, a liar.

Efrona put one hand to her forehead and sighed deeply. She didn't need to be thinking about what had happened before. She needed to focus on her music, or she would not be receiving a pay cheque.

Humming slightly to herself, Efrona lifted her eyes and swept them over the teen-bar (it was so rare to find one, and a decent one at that) and nearly dropped her guitar when she saw a few particular people sitting at a table. She inwardly groaned-not that it was a bad thing to see them, but if they saw her and decided to speak with her-she couldn't face them yet.

As if some deity above was laughing at her, Tea suddenly lifted her eyes and spotted her newest friend. Nudging her companions, Yugi, Joey and Tristan, she waved with a tentative smile, and Efrona waved back with a smile that was admittedly, slightly forced. She was glad to see her friends though.

With a sigh, and a belated mental pep talk to cheer up, Efrona walked onto the 'stage' she was performing on. She strummed her guitar, and focused.

_**What's wrong with me?  
I get lonely in a crowd,**__**  
Everyone is smiling,  
But I made myself left out.**_

_**I got an imaginary shield around**__** me,  
But nobody's ever really gotten through.  
I keep thinking that they're gonna break me free,  
But they never do! no **_

_**When somebody's knockin,  
When somebody wants me,  
When somebody's trying to love me completely.  
I get scared,  
Don't know how it works.  
Will somebody save me?  
Or will I get burned? **_

Efrona mentally laughed. It was easy to create her feelings of frustration over anything, and turn it into some problem of love. She was a romanticist as a kid, some remnant of it was still in her. It was what gave her the talent of creating love songs.

Yet even her songs showed she was weak, a coward. She was asking for help. Where was the independence she had built over the years? Down the drain, because she was so pathetic._**  
**_

_**Don't wanna get burned**__**…**_

_**Is there thickness in the air?  
**__**Weighing heavy on my heart?  
Why can't I just fit in?  
Why can't I do what everyone else does? **_

_**People come around like a storm,  
When you least expect them to.  
For me I run for cover,  
When I should really face the truth.**_

_**When somebody's knockin,  
When somebody wants me,  
When somebody's trying to love me completely.  
I get scared,  
Don't know how it works.  
Will somebody save me?  
Or**__** will I get burned? **_

_**What's wrong with me?  
I get lonely in a crowd.  
Everyone is smiling,  
But I made myself left out.**_

_**When somebody's knockin,  
When somebody wants me,  
When somebody's trying to love me completely.  
I get scared,  
Don't know how it works.  
Will somebody save me?  
Or will I get burned? **_

_**When somebody's knockin,  
When somebody wants me.  
When somebody's trying to love me completely.  
I get scared,  
Don't know how it works.  
Will somebody save me?  
Or will I get burned? **_

_**I get scared,  
Don't know how it works.  
Will somebody save me?  
Or will I get burned? **_

_**I get scared,  
Don't know how it works.  
Will somebody save me? **__**  
Or will I get burned.**_

Efrona finished and took a deep breath to compose herself. Claps and the occasional cheer rang out, but she didn't pay much attention to them. Hastily, she got off the stage, went to her boss and got her pay cheque before running outside. She leant against the building wall, closing her eyes briefly.

'I'm sorry you guys,' she thought sadly. 'I'm sorry. I tried to change, but in the end I'm not strong enough to be the type of friend good enough to join your group. I'm too weak, too selfish, too scared and too scarred mentally. That song…it's the only way I can explain anything to you, but I doubt you'll try reading into a love song.'

"Hey, Frona!" a voice practically yelled in her ear, and Efrona clutched at her head painfully. A whacking sound came next, followed by a painful moan.

"What was dat for Tea?!"

Efrona eyed Joey a little resentfully, but also with amusement. "I was resting Joey, not asleep, nor deaf. I can hear perfectly fine, thank you."

Joey rubbed his head sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry. You looked asleep though."

"Asleep standing up?" Efrona asked curiously. He nodded.

"Done it before."

"But wouldn't you fall down?"

"Nah, I couldn't. I was holdin a cheeseburger, and if I fell down I would've wasted it," Joey said reasonably. Yugi, Tea and Efrona gave him a strange look, while Tristan settled for a neutral nod.

"You know, you might get caught eventually if you keep taking these after school jobs," Tea said in concern. Efrona smiled.

"I'll be fine, I'm careful. Plus, I need to have some sort of income," she shrugged. "What were you people doing anyway? I didn't expect you to come to this place."

"We're doin what normal teenagers are meant to be doin," Joey declared. "We're chillin out after a hard day's mental work at the torture centre."

"In other words, pigging out on hamburgers after sleeping through school," Tea said dryly. Efrona laughed while Joey stumblingly protested. Yugi sweat dropped-he had eaten almost as many hamburgers as Joey. Maybe he should cut-back…nah, he liked them too much. He had better manners eating than Joey's gobbling anyway.

"Don't let me stop you from your fun afternoon then," Efrona said with a smile and casual wave. "I got to go back home and tidy the place a bit; it's turning into a pig sty." Well, actually, more like a dust bowl.

"You sure you can't put it off?" Yugi asked. "You just got off work; we could all hang out somewhere together."

"Yeah, liven up a bit," Tristan said, ruffling her hair. She swatted his hands away and glared balefully at their height difference.

"I don't think I should…"

She was her own housekeeper. Who was she kidding? She just wanted to get away from these people because she felt so guilty. However, she didn't want her last memories of them to be sad or even slightly disappointed ones, at least for them. She wanted happy last memories at least. 'Shows how selfish I am.' She thought.

She grinned at them sheepishly. "I don't think I should be such a worry wart. The apartment can live being dusty a few more hours. Where should we go?"

They grinned back at her and promptly began talking about a few new games that had been installed in the arcade. She nodded and tried to work up enough excitement to satisfy them. This afternoon was going to be a good one. Maybe she should buy ice-creams for them, as her treat. She needed a guilt relief, even a tiny, almost non-existent one.

She was right. The afternoon was a good one. The weather was warm, the arcade was fun, the ice-cream much appreciated (after a lot of arguing from Yugi and Tea-Joey and Tristan were delighted) and it was with content expression that everyone set off for home. Efrona was the first to detach herself from the happy group, a huge smile on her face.

"Bye everyone!" she called out merrily. Her eyes softened, taking in the scene around and in front of her, the merry expressions on everyone's face, and the wistful ache in her heart. A touch of wistfulness crept into her eyes but remained largely unnoticed. "Bye…" She ran off towards her home.

Bye indeed.

* * *

You know what I'll ask! Please review!


	28. Chapter 27

**Yes, I have changed this story's name, merely for the benefit of interest. So very sorry if this change, or the change in my pen name, is an inconvenience.**

LAST CHAPTER! Gosh, finally finished my first fanfic! 'sob sob'. Okay, I'm better now. Anyway, this will be the last chapter for THIS section of the Traces Through Time series. I'm working on Part Two, but I don't think it will come out for awhile. I have exams this week and next week, as well as exams for other random stupid things-no, not a fun life. I'm enjoying what freedom I have now.

Hints for Part Two of Traces Through Time, since some of you have been asking-yes, there will be romance in it! I am a romance addict if the story's good. We'll see how it goes.

Nobody answered my quesiton-should Tea, Tristan, Joey and any other people from YGO be put in ancient Egypt as incarnations or something? My second part does involve ancient Egypt somewhere. (Spoiled.)

Also, thank you to **Koragirl** and **The Duelist's Heiress** for their supportive reviews on my story! And thank you to those that have read this story and reviewed, or just read it. I hope it's been okay for you.

Now to the conclusion of this Part...

* * *

The plan was so simple, so vague, and so _routine_. This was the reason why no one remembered her from the places she travelled through for the past few years, and why she had stopped making friends after the first few times she did it. The repetition of this particular event was painful.

After all, wouldn't you be hurt if the few people you were once nearly close to suddenly forgot all about you? Though she had forced that fate upon them, but she was doing it to protect them.

Efrona sighed and shook herself out of her thoughts. She glanced at the vast body of water that lay below her, stained orange as the gloriously sorrowful sunset behind her-the heat of the day, the perfection of it, hinted at a storm soon, within the next few days maybe. Lovely time to leave town, huh?

That's right, leave town. She had to, after what happened at school. Her screaming, and people finding out she had trauma problems-she had drawn far too much attention. And the evil personality of the thief Bakura, hidden inside kind Ryou's mind…the darkness within that evil personality reminded her far too much of the murderer of her family, to be comfortable around.

The similarity of the oppressive darkness within the two personalities was what was making her flee. There had to be a reason why they were so similar-was it possible that her murderer, also enemy of the Pharaoh, was the evil spirit Bakura?

His name had been-she mentally gulped-Akunadin. So no, her family's murderer wasn't Bakura. All the same, she was afraid of that type of darkness. She was too weak to face something related to her past, and even though her friends said they would be there for her…

Hell, there was no 'even though'. She was just too plain used to be alone, to let them help her now. To an extent, they had. But they didn't know her deeply enough to fully help her, and she was too scarred inside to even help herself. Pathetic? Yes. But she couldn't hep it.

'Maybe one day,' Efrona thought wistfully. 'Maybe one day I'll come back here to Domino, when I've faced my own fears, when I can finally look them in the eye and tell them I've changed. Well, maybe not tell them, but say it to them mentally. I'll always be ashamed about what I'm going to do now though. I'm so sorry, you guys, but this is the only way to get away cleanly.'

She touched her wolf necklace gently. "Alright Efrona, let's do this. One last time. Then from now on, you'll never try and open up to people that much again. It'll save them and you the pain."

The body of water beneath her flying form was the dam that supplied drinking water to Domino. It was the one of the few things humans couldn't live without. Sooner or later, most probably during dinner tonight, people would drink some water to top off their meal. Except it wouldn't be normal water. Thanks to the magical properties her necklace had, the water would be turned into a memory eraser. People would start to feel woozy, then faint, straight after drinking it. While they were unconscious, the spell within the water would take form in their mind and destroy any image of her in it.

She personally called them her 'scouring wolves' since her necklace was the image of a wolf.

After they woke up from unconsciousness, the victims of her 'wolves' would simply wonder why they fainted, and go about their business. The people that checked up with a doctor as to why they fainted would find no answer, since the doctors would not find any symptoms of illness. Maybe just stress or tiredness.

Oh, and they wouldn't remember her.

Not many Efrona came into contact with actually remembered her. Except for a small few-mostly gangsters who had left town before she could wipe their memories-none would remember the girl who lived in a particular, recently vacated apartment, or who was the girl who sat at the back of their classroom was. It hurt, to be forgotten, and it hurt when she had to erase herself from the memory of those who had been kind to her. It was like an invasion of privacy. But it was safer for them not to remember her. What if Akunadin found them, and looked through their minds to see if they had seen her? Did he even have that power? If he found out, there was a possibility that he would kill those who knew her. He had killed her family, after all. To him, what's a few passer-by's?

'Breathe Efrona. No panicking-just do the job!' she scolded herself. She closed her eyes, and let loose her magic. Her wolf pendant began to glow, and for a moment, the water faintly sparkled, though the flashing was hidden by the brightness of the sunset. The ghostly image of a wolf walking over water flashed once, and vanished just as abruptly.

If anyone had been watching the scene, they would have seen a small-built girl floating above the centre of the dam, a backdrop of a rich, ruddy sunset behind her. Aquamarine eyes tinted orange from the sunset would have been sorrowful, but dry of tears.

She hadn't cried since she was twelve, since her family had been killed and she had given them the best burials she could in her circumstance.

And if anyone looking at this scene had watched extremely closely, they would have seen the magical manifestation of her flying magic-two white, feathered wings, almost completely translucent, and only visible through the faint blue outline that contrasted against the background.

The wings might have been angelic, but she was no angel herself. She was just a scared little girl dealing with bad situations the way she always had-by running away.

* * *

It was night when Efrona finally gathered the courage to finish her last task-Yugi.

Well not specifically Yugi, more his counterpart. Her water needed to be drunk by the person for her spell 'wolf' to reach the person's mind and begin its task. The thing was, while the spell wolf could erase her image from Yugi's memory, the Pharaoh still remembered her. She somehow needed to get Yami to drink the spelled water.

'I don't want to do this,' Efrona thought, as she pulled a hairpin out of her pocket. She bent the hair pin straight, and proceeded to undo the Turtle Game Shop's door lock the thief's good ol' fashioned way-picking it. She had enough experience picking simple locks to undo this one, though with a little help from her bracelet. It was how she had hacked into government files and created a new identity for herself-her bracelet had done the hacking. Right now, it was giving her gentle urges with magic as to how to unpick the lock.

It sounded vague, but it worked. After a few minutes, the lock clicked, and Efrona silently entered.

Grandpa Motou was sprawled out on the couch in front of the TV, and the TV was still on. An empty glass cup lay on the floor. 'Grandpa Motou must have fainted while waiting for a TV show to come on.' Efrona thought. 'Lucky the floor is carpet, or the glass wouldn't have survived.'

Sighing, she switched the TV off, picked up the dropped glass and set it on the table. She stood there for a few moments, surveying the comfortable living room a little wistfully-wistful seemed her most common expression or emotion these days-and then moved to the kitchen.

She took up a glass of water. If it knocked Grandpa Motou out, than the water in the house was the water that had been infected by her spell. She flitted up the stairs and quietly entered Yugi's bedroom.

Yugi was collapsed on the floor by his table. A quick check over him told he hadn't injured himself falling, but he was currently in an uncomfortable heap on the floor. Setting down the glass of water she brought, Efrona moved him into a more comfortable position, and then touched the Millennium Puzzle. 'Here goes nothing,' she thought, and let loose some magic. Her bracelet and hand flared with white-blue light.

_Pharaoh, come take over you__r charge. Someone is here to see you._

After a few moments, Efrona spotted Yugi's fingers curl slightly. She hastily stopped her magic and let go of the Puzzle. However, she kept one hand on Yugi's shoulder, and shook him gently.

"Yugi! Yugi, are you awake? Can you hear me?"

Deep, sharp violet eyes opened, definitely unlike Yugi's softer, gentler eyes. He looked at her in confusion. "Efrona?"

"Phew, I was worried for a minute," Efrona said, relieved. "Are you alright? You were sprawled out on the floor."

"Something is wrong," Yami said, worried. A dazed, dizzy look flashed briefly in his eyes as he stood up-even if his memory wasn't wiped like Yugi's was, since they were separate minds, they shared the same body, and the same effects and physical injuries. Waking up so early after being knocked unconscious (since the body needed more time to recuperate) must have made the body dizzy.

"Maybe something isn't right, but just sit still for a moment, you look a little sick," Efrona said, and handed him the water. She looked at him intently. "Drink, try and feel a little less sick, and then start thinking things through properly. It works better in that sequence." She managed a small, forced grin.

Yami thanked her quietly as he accepted the glass, and drank it down gratefully. The coolness of the water enabled him to focus and force the dizziness away from his present mind. Efrona took the cup away when he was done, and then began to ask questions. "What happened to you? I don't think either you or Yugi would have fallen asleep on the floor."

"I'm not exactly sure what happened myself," Yami replied. "But I was merely aware that something was wrong when Yugi began to feel ill. I could feel his discomfort, and asked if he was alright. He told me he was fine, but a few moments later he was in his soul room-a room within his mind-unconscious. I saw him there as I was approaching his soul room, along with a vague shadow, but the door closed and locked before I could even come in. I haven't been able to enter it for some reason, not by calling Yugi, or by forced entry either. I can't be too brutal about forced entry, or I could hurt his mind."

Efrona listened intently, growing more uncomfortable as each moment passed. "Do…do you know why Yugi fainted? Did he do something before?"

"I have no idea what caused this," Yami said, a touch of frustration in his voice. "But the cause must be of the magical sort, to be able to enter Yugi's soul room. I'm afraid that the shadow I saw hovering in Yugi's room might be dangerous or even deadly."

"Oh gosh…" Efrona murmured, at a loss of what to say.

Yami thought carefully, searching through his memories. What had Yugi been doing, just before he fainted? He hadn't been paying attention to his counterpart's actions because they were simple, everyday actions. What had Yugi been doing? What had been happening?

Yugi had finished dinner with his grandpa, helped to wash up, and then headed for his room. That was it.

"Nothing odd was happening," he murmured. "Yugi just had dinner and washed up, as usual. The sense of discomfort started there, I think, just a few moments after dinner. It wasn't strong enough for either of us to be worried about it, and Yugi waved it aside as…a 'food not agreeing to him'."

'No, it wasn't the food,' Efrona thought, but kept silent.

"I have a theory that maybe someone is trying to attack us with magic-Yugi was struck first," Yami said, worried. He glanced at her. "You have your own ability in magic, just as I have my own. Did you sense anything odd lately?"

"No," Efrona said. At least, what she tried to say. What came out was a strange squeak. When he looked at her oddly, she shook her head frantically and cleared her throat. "Um, I don't think I've seen anything."

Squeaking? What the hell, she had been doing alright before! What was making her so nervous and shaky now?

Yami frowned, and exhaled in frustration. "I still can't reach Yugi. He could be injured…" he shook his head, as if to banish that thought.

Ah, that was what was making her nervous. Yami was worried for his best friend, and it was _her fault_. It was because of her Yugi was knocked out, locked in his mind. Yami, being a decent, good friend was anxious.

God, she was such a snake for making him worry like this, for forcing this situation on her friends. When was that glass of water going to kick in and knock Yami out? The sooner she escaped, the better, before Yami found out she was guilty of poisoning (technically).

"Efrona?" Said girl snapped out of her mental panic attack and looked at Yami. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just fine. Are you…are you feeling alright? You look a little pale. You're not going to fall over unconscious right?" she asked, a little quickly.

"I'm fine," Yami said, puzzled, and he instinctively dropped his hand to curl around the Millennium Puzzle. At least, he tried. Except, he found that though his hand could drop to his side, it didn't seem to have the strength to lift back up. A wave of tiredness washed over him, and he nearly swayed at its strength. His vision blurred, and he near collapsed.

"Sit…sit down," Efrona told him. Her voice seemed distant to him, yet he could hear something odd about her voice…had it gone hoarse? It sounded as if she was…_afraid_ to speak.

"W-what…?" he mumbled, and with a light push from Efrona, tumbled onto the bed. She gazed down at him regretfully.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I really am. But this is how it's always been, how it should have been if I hadn't let my guard down."

"What did you do?!" Yami managed.

"You deserve this least of all, since you're searching for your memories. But I'm taking away a few memories myself. You'll be safer for it though. Just relax. You won't be harmed-despite what I'm doing now; I actually do care for you and your friends. You've all been kind to me, but there are some things you people just can't change. That's where I have to change them by myself, I think. Goodbye."

Yami hissed as he struggled against the blackness edging into his vision, but was forced to give in-he wasn't physically superhuman. He fainted dead away.

When he woke up the next morning, it was to Yugi knocking on the locked door of his soul…maze, and frantically asking if he was alright. He was aware that he had fainted, and Yugi also figured out that he himself had but neither knew why.

XXX

School was called off the day after several people fainted in their homes, and the day after that, to find out why the students at Domino High had suddenly been fainting. None knew. But then, none remembered the cheerful blue-eyed girl who hung with Yugi's group. There was nothing to say she had been at the school either. There was no unremembered name in the roll, no extra set of books in a locker that should have been empty.

The name Efrona Kwan was never whispered even once. There were no records in that city to even say she was there. The belongings in the apartment she lived in were gone, as was her memory. Once again, Efrona was a wanderer, passing through places like the wind that leaves nothing behind except mysterious, aimless imprints in the sand.

XXX

"Egypt. Land of sun, land of mystery, land of pyramids and deserts…whatever Efrona, you're just talking yourself because you're lonely, so just shut up. You decided to do all this crap." Efrona sighed, and massaged her temples. "I'm going nuts."

She splashed her bare feet into the Nile River, enjoying the warmth of the water. It was rare that river water would be warm enough not to jump at in shock, but when you're in Egypt, basically everything during the day was warm, from mild to unbearable.

'I wonder what I'm doing here,' Efrona thought, as she glanced at the far expanse of the Nile. 'It's been nearly half a year since I was in Domino. I've just turned sixteen three days ago, and I'm currently holidaying in Egypt since it's school holidays in for me. I should be trying to live like a normal teenager should. So why do I keep thinking back to those people…those friends in Domino? They don't remember me, and one isn't even in this world anymore-Yami, I mean, Atem, he's moved on to the Afterlife. I know it; because I snuck to Egypt and secretly watched over his and his friends' unconscious bodies for days while they were in that weird place they was sucked into by the Tablet. I watched Ya-Atem and Yugi battle it out, I watched the Pharaoh walk into the Afterlife.

'The whole story's over now. The person who murdered my family, he's somehow gone. I'm sure he is, because Akunadin was a past enemy of the Pharaoh who used Shadow Magic. But Atem, after doing whatever he did within whatever place the Tablet sent him, resealed the Shadow Games, this time for good. Akunadin can't hurt me now; I'm free to just live normally, just like Yugi, Tea, Tristan and Joey are.'

Efrona sighed at that. She knew full well that she couldn't, not until she faced a few issues in her past. She still hadn't scrounged up the courage to go back to Australia and visit the house of her childhood, or even to visit her family's graves. Even though she no longer had to move from city to city, she often found herself spending a lot of time outdoors, roaming the streets or parks. The library was probably the only building she was comfortable staying at, because she liked reading. Every other building she was in, she felt so damn lonely.

'Now I'm back in Egypt,' she contemplated. 'For the second time in my life. I wonder why? I have almost no connection to Egypt, besides the fact my necklace was supposedly bought here. Maybe it's because Egypt was where I last saw the gang, and-'

Her thoughts were cut off by a dark, suffocating feeling that was clogging up her lungs. She gasped, and forced herself to breathe. Why was it so difficult to breathe all of a sudden? Sweat beaded her brow and her heart thumped frantically in her chest. This sensation, she was familiar with it. The trigger to it should have disappeared though…

"Akunadin is gone! He has to be! So what's going on?!" Efrona gasped, and desperately, recklessly, she jumped forward into the Nile. She forgot the fact that she was standing on a sand bar, and that the water in front of the sand bar was VERY deep. Also, even if she could control water…

She was admittedly a crap swimmer. As in, she couldn't swim more than 50 metres (one length of a swimming pool) without panting heavily by the end of it. Yeah, she was that bad at swimming, so sue her. Not.

The Nile waters seemed to reach up to Efrona then, wrapping tentacles of water around her body, and pulled her in faster. She gasped, and a flood of water entered her mouth, nose and lungs. Coughing didn't work, because she just took in more water.

'I _can't_ die here!' Efrona panicked mentally, as she struggled to surface. Something was stopping her though-the Nile. The great body of water that Efrona had once admired was now dragging her in deeper, closer and closer to the bottom of the river. She couldn't see the bottom though-it was a long way off. 'I survived maniacs trying to get my powers, being crushed, being beaten up and stabbed by gangs-I can't die by drowning!!'

_You foolish little girl, _something chimed in her head. The voice sounded amused and exasperated. _Such odd thoughts in this situation. Calm yourself, my daughter._

Water caressed her skin gently, stroking back her long dark hair and spreading it willy-nilly like a cloud around her head. Efrona blinked, wondering why her vision was going dark. She closed her eyes, trying to force down the uncontrollable panic and the desperate need to breathe-and lost consciousness.

* * *

Water lapped up the banks of the Nile, giving moisture to the golden and brown sand. It also lapped up against something less flat-a body. Like a mother giving away her beloved child, the Nile refused to leave the body alone, to let it be scorched by the sun. The form was thinly covered by a sheet of liquid, almost like a blanket. The face was left bare, pale cheeks covered by dripping, black, blue fringed hair.

A shadow loomed over the body, momentarily blocking the sunlight from the form.

"What in Ra's name…? Layla, come have a look at this. I think we'll be having a new addition to our group."

* * *

Farewell readers, until next part! Please leave a review as you pass by this chapter.


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